FRIDAY, April 6, 2018


Craft across
generations
In an old town in Kashgar,
Xinjiang, earthenware
skills draw tourists. >p7
Soybean
group in
US calls
for trade
sense
By ZHAO HUANXIN
in Washington
huanxinzhao@
chinadailyusa.com
A lobbying group for the
US soybean industry urged
the White House on
Wednesday to engage Bei-
jing in a more pragmatic
manner to avoid economic
harm to farmers, as ana-
lysts warned of the eco-
nomic and political
implications of the coun-
try’s escalating trade stand-
off with China.
Soybeans, the largest US
agricultural export to Chi-
na, is one of 106 US prod-
ucts on which Beijing
considered imposing an
additional 25 percent tariff.
The move was
announced early on
Wednesday following the
Trump administration’s
proposed tariffs on $50 bil-
lion worth of Chinese prod-
ucts.
“A 25 percent tariff on US
soybeans into China will
have a devastating effect on
every soybean farmer in
America,” said American
Soybean Association Presi-
dent John Heisdorffer.
“Soybean farmers lost $1.72
billion in value for our crop
this morning alone. That’s
real money lost for farmers,
and it is entirely preventa-
ble,” he said.
Heisdorffer, whose asso-
ciation is a lobbying group
representing 21,000 US
soybean producers, said
there is still time to reverse
the damage, as China has
said that its extra tariff is
contingent on the course of
action the US administra-
tion takes.
“We call on President
Trump to engage the Chi-
nese in a constructive man-
ner — not a punitive one —
and achieve a positive
result for soybean farmers,”
Heisdorffer said in a state-
ment.
The long-term impact of
a tariff would be to make
US soybeans less competi-
tive with South American
soybeans, said Gary Schnit-
key, a professor and farm
management specialist at
the University of Illinois.
Over time, there would
be a shift in acreage away
from soybeans in the US
and a move to South Ameri-
can soybeans, he told China
Daily in an email.
Beijing has stressed that
the proposed 25 percent
tariff is one of the counter-
measures it was forced to
take. It said it was also out
of concern for protecting
the interests of Chinese
farmers.
US soybeans sold to Chi-
na account for 62 percent of
its total soybean exports.
Last year, the US shipped
about 33 million metric
tons to China, one-third of
China’s total imports.
“While US farmers can
benefit from healthy Sino-
US economic ties, the
See Soybeans, page 2
High-level handshake
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meets with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday.
Wang is in Russia on a working visit as President Xi Jinping’s special envoy. He met earlier with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / REUTERS
US companies may miss
opportunities in China
Countermeasures on trade could
leave them out if dispute escalates
By HU YUANYUAN
and JING SHUIYU in Beijing,
CHEN WEIHUA
in Washington
US enterprises may miss
the opportunity to benefit
from China’s ongoing open-
ing-up process if the Sino-US
dispute escalates, experts
from top government think
tanks said on Thursday.
“Some of China’s opportu-
nities may not apply to US
enterprises, based on WTO
rules and China’s Foreign
Trade Law,” said Wei Jianguo,
a former vice-minister of
commerce and current vice-
president of the China Center
for International Economic
Exchanges. “Once the US tar-
iff measures against Chinese
products take effect, China
will immediately adopt coun-
termeasures.”
According to the Office of
the United States Trade Rep-
resentative, the proposed US
list under Section 301 of the
US Trade Act of 1974 will
undergo further review in a
public notice and comment
process, including a public
hearing. After completion of
that process, the trade repre-
sentative office will issue a
final determination on prod-
ucts subject to additional
duties.
Wei said the US review
period to seek public com-
FOR SHORTHAND TYPISTS, AI BRINGS END TO BOOM TIMES
Developments in smart voice-recognition software are drying up demand for stenographers, as Zhang Yue reports.
A
t the start of his
career, Li Zhengjie
would scour the
streets, wander uni-
versity campuses and even
climb skyscrapers to drum up
business. He quickly realized
that being a freelance stenog-
ment is just a “stalling tactic”
used in the hope that China
will change its mind.
Larry Kudlow, the new
director of the White House
National Economic Council,
told NBC News that it’s possi-
ble that US President Donald
Trump’s tariffs are a negotiat-
ing tactic and won’t actually
take effect. “Yes, it’s possible.
It’s part of the process,” he
said.
Their comments came
hours after China announced
it would slap 25 percent tariffs
on 106 US products worth $50
billion, ranging from soy-
beans and cars to whiskey and
airplanes. That was a response
to the 25 percent tariff on
1,300 Chinese products worth
$50 billion announced by the
US Trade Representative on
Tuesday, following a Section
301 investigation into China’s
intellectual property policies
and practices.
Amid speculation that a
major tariff war may not mate-
rialize, the Dow Jones industrial
average fluctuated wildly on
Wednesday, plunging 501
points after the opening bell but
closing the day up 230 points at
24,263. The S&P 500 closed the
day up 1.16 percent.
“The essence of the Sino-
US trade war is high-tech,
and the US government’s
pledge to address the trade
deficit is just an excuse to
rapher is hard work — even
before you’ve landed a client.
Twelve years on, the job is
still hard, but at least his
income has increased.
Li’s first client was a profes-
sor who paid him 160 yuan
($25) in March 2006 to record
Sri Lanka offers visitors a rich experience >p10
The US govern-
ment’s pledge
to address the
trade deficit is
just an excuse
to curb the
development of
China’s high-
end manufac-
turing sector.”
Ye Fujing, director of the
Institute for International
Economic Research
curb the development of Chi-
na’s high-end manufacturing
sector,” said Ye Fujing, direct-
or of the Institute for Interna-
tional Economic Research, a
think tank under the Nation-
al Development and Reform
Commission, the country’s
top economic regulator.
“Many categories that the
US included in the list are
important for China’s indus-
trial upgrades, but the scale of
their export to the US is not
big at all,” Ye said.
At a news conference on
Wednesday, Vice-Minister of
Commerce Wang Shouwen
X © 2018 ChinaDaily
and transcribe discussions
during a two-hour seminar in
Beijing. Li and his wife, also a
stenographer, made about
1,800 yuan a month that year,
but today they can earn up to
30,000 yuan a month.
“I could barely imagine such
HOLIDAY
responded to a Twitter mes-
sage by Trump. Wang said it is
“absolutely unacceptable” to
ask China alone to cut the
country’s surplus with the US
by $100 billion each year.
Trade is carried out by com-
panies and consumers from
both countries on a voluntary
basis, Wang said, adding that
trade imbalances cannot be
forced by government but are
determined by the economic
structures and industrial
competitiveness of the coun-
tries involved.
For Chen Wenling, chief
economist at the economic
exchanges center, the recent
US trade moves involving
China reflect a shift in strate-
gic priorities.
“China and Russia are now
on top of the US government’s
strategic concerns, replacing
terrorism,” Chen said. “This
reflects the growing worry in
the US over China’s recent
achievements in industry
upgrades and its moves
toward modernization.”
Chen said the Sino-US
trade dispute is just the
beginning of what will be an
increasingly intense strategic
competition between the two
countries in the years ahead.
“We should be prepared for
a trade war that could last
years, and take more prevent-
ive measures in other fields,”
Chen said.
Contact the writers at
huyuanyuan@
chinadaily.com.cn
an income when I was starting
out,” said Li, 36, who now leads
a team of 12 stenographers
covering events across the Chi-
nese capital.
However, some in the busi-
ness fear breakthroughs in
artificial intelligence and
EDITION
chinadaily.com.cn
COMMENTARY
Negotiation, not
useless tariff threat,
is the way forward
By CHEN WEIHUA
in Washington
chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
US President Donald Trump
and Commerce Secretary Wil-
bur Ross both tried to calm the
panic about a possible trade
war on Wednesday, just hours
after China slapped a 25 per-
cent tariff on $50 billion of
imports from the US, includ-
ing soybeans, whiskey, cars
and airplanes.
Trump tweeted early on
Wednesday morning that “we
are not in a trade war with Chi-
na”, while Ross told CNBC that
he expects the situation will
likely lead to a negotiated deal.
Larry Kudlow, director of the
White House National Eco-
nomic Council, suggested that
it’s possible Trump’s tariffs are
a negotiating tactic and won’t
actually take effect.
If that is the case, then
Trump has already proved
himself wrong. China has
demonstrated that it cannot
be coerced and that it is fully
determined to reciprocate.
Wielding a big tariff stick
won’t give the US more lever-
age at the negotiating table.
By threatening protectionist
tariffs, Trump has caused a
major disruption in the global
trading system and also put
Americans in harm’s way. US
consumers — farmers and
blue-collar workers, many of
whom voted for Trump — have
been hurt already as a result of
the tariff war triggered by the
steel and aluminum tariffs
under US law. The damages
will be much greater if the tit-
for-tat tariffs sparked by anoth-
er part of the law take effect.
China has long called for
negotiations to resolve bilater-
al trade and investment issues.
So if the Trump administration
is open to negotiation, as it has
indicated, it should immedi-
ately cease using the tariff stick
and get on with the negotiat-
ing process.
Negotiations, through any
established platform, is a much
Culture for the holiday
Foreigners attend the opening ceremony of a willow culture festival
in Beijing’s Liuyin (Willow) Park, on Thursday. The three-day event
features a series of cultural activities to attract visitors during the
Tomb Sweeping Day holiday. LUO XIAOGUANG / XINHUA
smart voice-recording soft-
ware is threatening their
industry.
“I’m kind of worried whether
this job will still exist in the
years ahead,” said Pan Li, who
See Typing, page 3

 ¥2
better way to address each oth-
er’s concerns than threatening
a tariff war.
Negotiations may not be a
smooth process and will not
solve all the problems or solve
them in a short time. That is
just the nature of many compli-
cated issues in big countries
like China and the US.
Gun violence, for example,
has haunted Americans for
decades, but it remains a seri-
ous issue regardless of the mas-
sive public demonstrations like
the recent March for Our Lives.
China has long called on the
US to loosen and lift its restric-
tions on US high-tech exports
to China. The US has not only
failed to address this but
moved in the opposite direc-
tion with more discriminatory
policies against China, both in
trade and investment.
And it’s impossible for the
US to demand that China, the
world’s largest developing
country, solve its problems
overnight, even if it’s in Chi-
na’s best interest.
What is important is that
China is moving in the right
direction. It has been steadily
improving its protection of
intellectual property rights, a
key element for creating an
innovation driven society.
Chinese leaders have
pledged further opening-up.
President Xi Jinping is expect-
ed to roll out new measures at
the Boao Forum for Asia to be
held in Hainan province from
April 8 to 11.
After all, this year marks the
40th anniversary of China’s
reform and opening-up drive,
which has brought phenome-
nal progress to the country
and benefited the world,
including the US. It’s in Chi-
na’s interest to continue on
that path.
So it’s really time for Trump
to give up the useless tariff
weapon and come to the nego-
tiating table.
The author is deputy editor of
China Daily USA.
A member of the
Asia News Network
All Rights Reserved
Vol.38 — No.11833
国内统一编号:CN11-0091
国际标准编号:ISSN0253-9543
邮发代号:1-3
2 HOLIDAY | Nation Friday, April 6, 2018 CHINA DAILY

Call for cooler heads

Boeing, GM urge calm approach
US companies prefer negotiations,
long-term policy to confrontation
By ZHONG NAN
and ZHU WENQIAN
A number of large commer-
cial entities from the United
States including Boeing, Gen-
eral Motors and the American
Soybean Association, have
urged the US government to
resolve the simmering trade
dispute with China through
constructive dialogue, and to
seek sustainable trade policies.
Their response came after
China announced plans to
impose 25 percent supple-
mental tariffs on 106 US prod-
ucts including automobiles,
commercial aircraft, chemi-
cals and soybeans on Wednes-
day as a response to tariff
proposals from the Trump
Administration.
Items on the latest list from
Beijing include planes with an
operating empty weight
between 15,000 kilograms and
45,000 kg, which covers a
series of Boeing 737 planes.
Some single-aisle Boeing
aircraft, including the B737-
700, B737-800, B737-900 and
B737 MAX 7, are among the
major plane models that Boe-
ing exported to China over the
past few years, and are among
the products likely to see high-
er tariffs.
As a possible trade war will
affect businesses from both
countries, Boeing said that
while both governments have
“outlined positions that could
do harm to the global aero-
space industry, neither has yet
imposed these drastic meas-
ures”, the group said in a state-
ment.
“We will continue in our
own efforts to proactively
engage both governments and
build on the recent assurances
by US and Chinese leaders
that productive talks are ongo-
ing. A strong and vibrant aero-
space industry is important to
the economic prosperity and
national security of both coun-
tries,” the US aircraft manu-
facturer said.
From 2018 to 2020, Air Chi-
na, China Eastern Airlines and
China Southern Airlines plan
to purchase more than 300
aircraft from the B737 series,
according to their earnings
reports.
China is now the world’s
largest aircraft market by sales
volume. The country imported
60 billion yuan ($9.52 billion)
of Boeing’s products and
accounted for 26 percent of
Boeing’s global production,
said Lin Zhijie, an aviation
industry analyst and colum-
nist at Carnoc — China’s larg-
est civil aviation web portal.
“There is no significant dif-
ference in performance
between Airbus SE’s aircraft
and Boeing’s, and the product
certainly can be replaced with
a strong alternative,” he said.
The homegrown C919
large passenger jet, and the
A320 series made by Europe-
an aircraft manufacturer Air-
bus — the archrival of Boeing
— are competing models of
the narrow-body B737.
Meanwhile, Boeing is build-
ing a B737 MAX completion
and delivery center in Zhous-
han, Zhejiang province, and it
is expected to go into opera-
tion in May. By the end of this
year, Boeing plans to deliver
the first B737 MAX plane
directly from Zhoushan to a
domestic airline.
General Motors also said in
a statement released on
Wednesday that the company
supports a positive trade rela-
tionship between the US and
China, and hopes they value a
vibrant auto industry and
understand the interdepen-
dence between the world’s two
largest automotive markets.
Contact the writers at
zhongnan@
chinadaily.com.cn
in Sino-US dispute
By ZHONG FEITENG
On Wednesday, the United
States published a proposed
list of imports from China
worth around $50 billion in
annual trade it has targeted
for additional tariffs. Nine
hours later, China announced
a list of US goods totaling the
same value that will be sub-
ject to equivalent tariff hikes,
fulfilling its promise of “retal-
iatory measures of the same
strength and the same scope”.
The proposed US list is
something worthy of our
attention. First, it covers
approximately 1,300 prod-
ucts imported from China,
including industries such as
aerospace, information and
communications technolo-
gy, robotics and machinery.
Media outlets in both China
and the US describe it as
“aiming at technology” and
in the future and China must
be prepared for that.
Third, the proposed tariff
rate on the listed Chinese
products is 25 percent,
which is in accordance with
US domestic laws, but not
international treaties. In
other words, for the US, its
own domestic laws come
before the international
treaties that it has signed
and ratified. Actually, the US
has been adopting such a
principle since the 1970s by
negotiating with the econo-
mies that export to it.
That principle has been
increasingly more evident
since Donald Trump took
office, which in turn deals a
heavy blow to the liberal
global trade order. China is
not the only victim of this
strategy. Many alliances that
the US enjoys with Europe-
an countries and other part-

Soybeans: After a snowfall mainly targeting the coun-

Escalation
would hurt
From page 1
export volume to China
was too big,” China’s Vice-
Minister of Finance Zhu
Guangyao said on Wednes-
day in Beijing.
“Chinese farmers have
petitioned industry associ-
ations, saying that US gov-
ernment subsidies hurt
Chinese soybean growers,
and China must respect its
farmers’ demands.”
Jon Taylor, professor of
political science at the
University of St. Thomas
in Houston, said the trade
dispute could still get ugly
between China and the
US.
He warned of the politi-
cal repercussions of escala-
tion. For example, the tariff
would hurt Iowa, a key in
presidential elections.
“If we go into a long, sus-
tained period of low prices,
it will impact some farmers’
ability to stay on the farm,”
Kirk Leeds, CEO of the
Iowa Soybean Association,
told the Des Moines Regis-
ter. Iowa is the top produc-
er of soybeans in the US.
Taylor said managing
China-US trade relations is
a major challenge facing
the Trump administration,
which “would be well
served by changing its pro-
tectionist approach”.
William Zarit, chairman
of the American Chamber
of Commerce in China, said
he hopes Washington and
Beijing will not follow
through on their “threats”.
Instead, they should work
toward a “serious negotia-
tion”, The Associated Press
reported on Wednesday.
Soybean futures fell as
much as 5 percent on
Wednesday, their biggest
intraday loss since July
2016, and went on to close
down by 4 percent.
Paul Welitzkin in New York
contributed to this story.
The Jiankou section of the Great Wall in Beijing’s Huairou district is blanketed in snow on Thursday due to the strong cold front sweeping
through many parts of the country since Wednesday. WANG JING / CHINA DAILY
Hainan cultivating high-tech agriculture
TIDES OF another 960 tons of fresh vege-
CHANGE tables were sold to Hong Kong,
according to official statistics.
IN HAINAN Xu Yun, director of the Hain-
an provincial department of
By MA ZHIPING agriculture, said the province
and LIU XIAOLI in Haikou is restructuring its agricultural
sector by reducing low-effi-
Hainan province is increas- ciency industries and products
ingly working to hasten agri- such as sugar cane and euca-
cultural supply side structural lyptus. Instead, it is expanding
reforms, speed up the develop- higher quality produce varie-
ment of the sector’s moderni- ties such as winter vegetables
zation and strengthen tropical and melons, sweet potatoes,
agriculture. pineapples, grapefruits and
Before it was upgraded to a cherry tomatoes.
province in 1988, about 80 per- Chengmai, about 60 kilome-
cent of its grain and animal ters from the provincial capi-
husbandry products was sup- tal of Haikou, is one of the
plied from outside. But it is regions that has reaped bene-
now becoming the country’s fits from restructuring local
biggest fruit and vegetable farming. “Our Qiaotou brand
producer in the winter, con- sweet potatoes sell well in Bei-
tributing 4.8 million metric jing and Shanghai, as well as
tons of vegetables to the markets in Japan and Cana-
domestic market last year. da,” said Wang Wenke, head of
A total of 430 tons of litchee, Changtang village in Qiaotou
longan, mango, paw paw and town, Chengmai — an area
green oranges were exported known for its rich soil and the
from Hainan to Canada, the longevity of its locals.
United Kingdom and the Unit- The 40-year-old village head
ed States last year, while made a living in cities after
graduating from a university
in Nanjing, and then returned
to Changtang, his home vil-
lage, in 2007. At the time he
convinced his fellow villagers
to try cultivating sweet pota-
toes instead of the traditional
lower-profit rice.
Sweet potato fields have
expanded to 1,800 hectares in
Qiaotou, a town of 22,000 resi-
dents, and a research institute
developing virus-free seed-
lings there is helping promote
better farming practices. Out-
put value from sweet potato
harvesting reached 360 mil-
lion yuan ($57 million) last
year. About 310,000 tourists
visited Qiaotou in 2017 to
enjoy digging up sweet pota-
toes for themselves last year.
The Qiaotou model of intro-
ducing high-efficiency farm-
ing is being copied across the
island.
Dongfang, on Hainan’s
southwest coast, now has
large fields of red flesh dragon
fruit and white chrysanthe-
mums after converting waste-
land into farmland. Its export
of winter white chrysanthe-
mums accounts for over half of
the country’s total and is grow-
ing at 20 percent a year.
The 733-hectare Lingshui
modern agriculture demon-
stration zone on the east coast,
launched in 2015, has played
an active role in showcasing
the importance of technology
in farming. A vertical farming
system introduced from Sing-
apore can now produce 27.5
tons of vegetables per mu
(0.066 hectare) a year versus
output from traditional farm-
ing of just 4 tons.
Xu, the agricultural official,
said Hainan will accelerate
agricultural standardization
to realize comprehensive high
efficiency production. It will
cultivate 30 leading sectors in
planting, aquaculture and
processing while developing
30 key products to upgrade
the competitiveness of quality
Hainan farm produce.
Contact the writers at
mazhiping@
chinadaily.com.cn
try’s grand “Made in China
2025” plan. The list also
shows a desire to “contain”
China’s high-tech industries.
Of course, China’s high-
tech industries are not the
primary cause of the US
trade deficit with China, so
the containment measures
won’t help the US narrow
the deficit.
Second, it should also be
noted that the list, even if
eventually implemented, is
far from triggering a total
“trade war” as fierce as that
seen between the US and
Japan in the 1980s — a bitter
conflict in which the US
required Japan to limit its
exports to the US. However, if
trade frictions between China
and the US continue, there
might be more uncertainties
Canadians pay
tribute in Nanjing
By CANG WEI in Nanjing
cangwei@chinadaily.com.cn
Shortly before Tomb
Sweeping Day, which fell on
Thursday, many overseas
Chinese and foreigners visit-
ed the Memorial Hall for the
Victims of the Nanjing Mas-
sacre by Japanese Invaders
in Nanjing, Jiangsu prov-
ince, to remember the dead
and call for peace.
During a visit organized
by Canada’s Nanjing Fellow
Association, about 100
Canadians of Chinese origin
wore violet cress-shaped
badges as symbols of peace
while paying tribute to the
victims. Wang Haicheng,
president of the association,
presented three original
documents to the memorial
hall, including the motion
introduced by Huang Sumei
— the first Chinese-Canadi-
an woman elected to the
Ontario regional parliament
— to designate Nanjing Mas-
sacre Commemorative Day
to remember the victims.
The other two were a
statement by Jenny Kwan,
Member of Parliament of the
New Democratic Party, to
ners have suffered.
Last but not least, the US
officials that drafted the pro-
posed list claim to be “mini-
mizing” its negative effects
upon US consumers by seek-
ing substitutes of products
exported from China.
The problem is, it is hardly
possible to find substitutes
for all the Chinese products
exported to the US, and US
consumers are likely to suffer
from their government’s
newly proposed tariffs. In a
word, the US move hurts
both the Chinese and US pop-
ulations, and we hope Wash-
ington can reconsider the
measures before it is too late.
The author is a researcher at
National Institute of Inter-
national Strategy, Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.
call on the Canadian govern-
ment to proclaim Dec 13 as
Nanjing Massacre Com-
memorative Day, and the
motion passed by the Toron-
to City Council in December
2016 — which was intro-
duced by Councilor Jim
Karygiannis — to recognize
the Nanjing Massacre as a
historical event.
“We were interfered with
by the government when we
held exhibits about the Nan-
jing Massacre in Toronto
years ago,” Wang said. “It
said that Canada is a peace-
ful country and cannot have
such ‘bloody’ exhibitions.
But now the government has
invited us to hold exhibits.”
The Nanjing Massacre, in
which more than 300,000
Chinese were killed in a six-
week rampage starting on
Dec 13, 1937, took place
when Japanese troops cap-
tured Nanjing.
Wang, also curator of the
World War II Asian Memorial
Museum of Canada, said that
the museum has collected
more than 1,000 relics and
pictures related to the massa-
cre to let more people know
about the historical event.

FRI - SAT APRIL 6-7

-16/1 Beijing 3/11 C 4/12 S Shanghai 9/15 C 8/12 C
6/15 -10/8 Changchun -3/6 C -5/7 C Shenyang -1/6 C -4/9 C
7/17 Changsha 8/17 C 7/19 S Shenzhen 17/24 Sh 15/21 O
Chongqing 11/20 C 12/23 C Shijiazhuang 3/10 S 3/18 S
3/11 Dalian 2/7 D 2/8 C Suzhou 8/15 S 3/17 S
4/12 Fuzhou 18/21 T 13/19 D Taipei 21/26 T 14/15 D
6/13 Guangzhou 18/23 Sh 14/20 C FRIDAY
Taiyuan -2/5 Du -7/15 S
2/11 Guilin 12/21 D 12/24 C Tianjin 4/11 C 5/12 S SATURDAY
12/22
19/22 Guiyang 7/10 Sh 7/15 O Urumqi 6/15 S 7/17 S
6/14 Haikou 20/28 T 16/20 T Wuhan 5/16 C 3/15 S
5/20 9/15
8/12 Hangzhou 8/15 C 7/18 C Xi'an 8/15 S 4/21 S
23/39 Harbin -6/6 S -5/7 S Xiamen 20/27 D 14/22 D Abu Dhabi 24/42 C 26/41 C BuenosAires 18/21 D 16/23 D
22/40 21/26 Hefei 6/17 C 3/15 C Xining -7/10 C -6/17 S
18/23 14/15 Bangkok 28/35 D 28/31 D Caracas 25/26 D 25/26 D
14/20 Hohhot -7/1 C -9/11 S Yantai 2/8 O 2/8 C Colombo 25/32 R 25/32 D Chicago 2/5 R/Sn 2/3 O
22/38 Hongkong 18/27 C 16/21 O Yinchuan -4/8 S -5/16 S Dubai 26/39 C 29/36 C Houston 23/24 D 16/22 D
18/27 Jinan 3/11 C 1/13 C Zhengzhou 6/15 S 4/18 S
22/37 16/21 Hanoi 22/22 D 17/25 C Las Vegas 16/25 O 17/27 O
Kunming 6/11 R 5/12 D Zhuhai 17/25 Sh 15/19 Sh Islamabad 19/36 S 19/37 S Los Angeles 12/16 O 14/18 D
Lanzhou -2/11 S -1/20 S Jakarta 26/30 D 26/30 D Mexico city 17/20 D 18/23 D
28/35 Lhasa 1/14 C 2/13 C
28/31 Karachi 24/35 S 23/37 S New York 2/7 D 5/13 D
Lijiang 9/20 R 3/14 R Kuala Lumpur 24/29 D 25/29 R Ottawa -10/1 Sn -5/-2 Sn
25/32 Macao 17/24 C 15/20 Sh Rio De Janeiro 24/25 D 24/24 R
25/36 24/31 25/34 Manila 25/34 S 24/33 O
24/33 Nanchang 10/17 O 8/18 C Mumbai 24/32 C 23/33 S San Francisco 9/14 R 14/16 R
22/27 Nanjing 6/16 C 5/13 S Athens 11/19 D 14/18 D
Berlin 8/8 O 3/4 S New Delhi 23/39 C 22/40 S Sao Paulo 17/20 D 17/22 D
Nanning 17/19 T 13/24 C Pyongyang 7/11 C 2/10 S Vancouver 5/7 D 6/7 D
24/29 Qingdao 5/11 C 3/11 C Brussels 6/6 C 2/8 C
25/29 Geneva 7/7 C 3/8 S Riyadh 17/30 D 18/33 D Washington 4/9 D 8/17 O
Sanya 21/30 T 18/25 T Seoul 6/13 C 2/11 D
Istanbul 12/22 O 10/18 O
26/29 London 2/4 O 4/6 D Singapore 26/29 D 25/30 D
25/30 Madrid 0/16 O 1/10 R/Sn Sydney 18/25 C 19/27 D Cairo 17/30 S 18/27 S
Moscow 4/14 D 5/6 D Teheran 10/14 D 11/15 D CapeTown 16/19 D 15/21 C
26/30 Paris 8/11 C 6/13 S Tokyo 12/22 D 19/22 D Johannesburg 11/23 C 11/24 S
26/30 Rome 13/13 D 10/13 S Wellington 15/21 S 17/21 D Lagos 27/28 D 26/28 D
Vienna 6/11 D 6/8 D Yangon 22/38 C 22/37 C Nairobi 14/26 D 15/26 D
 CHINA DAILY Friday, April 6, 2018
Typing: Insiders are confident
their skills will remain relevant
From page 1
has been in the business for 12 years.
She works with her friend Ma Ruiju-
an from a home office in Handan,
Hebei province, about 400 kilometers
from Beijing. They handle interviews,
academic speeches, court hearings,
phone surveys and celebrity appear-
ances, charging 80 yuan an hour.
Pan, Ma and Li were all inspired to
become stenographers around 2006
after spotting advertisements in
local newspapers that suggested
demand for such skills would soar
over the following decade.
The prediction was correct, and
all three have so far enjoyed decent
careers. Yet as demand begins to
drop due to new technologies, so are
incomes.
Li mostly now works conferences,
seminars and forums, but in 2006 he
was receiving a lot of business from
journalists who wanted quick tran-
LI MIN / CHINA DAILY
scriptions of their interviews.
“They’d give me their recordings
and I’d usually charge them 70 or 80
yuan an hour,” he said. But since 2015,
that kind of work has all but disap-
peared. “Few are still coming to me
today because they can simply use
smart software and apps to produce
their own transcripts,” Li added.
‘Exciting experiences’
After graduating with an advertis-
ing degree from college in his native
Shenyang, Liaoning province, Li
worked for several months for a
local ad agency. But he was not hap-
py with the salary.
“Then I saw a newspaper ad for a
stenography training school that
said the industry would be one of the
most promising for the next 10 years
and promised high salaries,” he
recalled. “At that time, none of my
friends and relatives had ever heard
of such a job.”
Li and his wife signed up for class-
es, paying about 10,000 yuan for tui-
tion, and over the next six months
dedicated themselves to learning
how to use a stenotype, a machine
that enables users to record speech
in shorthand.
“The hardest part is improving
your speed. To go from typing 60
words a minute to 120 words required
us to practice by typing millions and
millions of words,” he said.
Due to the limited demand in his
hometown, Li decided to move to
Beijing shortly after completing his
training. Stenographers typically
start by transcribing audio files and
then progress to conferences, which
are high pressure but pay about 300
yuan an hour. Li started working
conferences in 2008.
Ma from Hebei relocated to the
capital in 2006 for the same reason
as Li. “Most of my clients were intro-
duced by friends in the same indus-
try, and I was usually hired to do
transcripts of media interviews,” the
32-year-old said.
Before long, she was regularly
working in the studios of China Cen-
tral Television, the State broadcast-
er, and Beijing TV, and by 2010, she
had helped produce transcripts of a
number of high-profile shows,
including CCTV’s Legal Report.
“Those were the most exciting
experiences of my 20s,” she said,
laughing. “I didn’t know what a TV
interview was like until I stepped
into a TV studio.”
Ma eventually moved back to her
hometown with her husband and
children, but she continues to work
on interviews by receiving and send-
ing files through the internet.
“I’m the main breadwinner in my
family because this job allows me to
earn more money than my hus-
band,” she said. “What’s more, it
keeps me connected with the out-
side world.”
Coexisting with AI
Courts are a major source of work
for stenographers, who record pro-
ceedings for the public record. How-
ever, tech tycoon Liu Qingfeng is
hoping to change that.
Liu’s company, iFlytek — which is
headquartered in Hefei, Anhui prov-
ince, and makes language
input software and voice-
recognition programs —
unveiled an AI system
Li Zhengjie works as a stenographer at an acdemic seminar at Beijing’s
Tsinghua University in March. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
I’m the main bread-
winner in my family
because this job allows
me to earn more mon-
ey than my husband.
What’s more, it keeps
me connected with the
outside
world.”
Ma Ruijuan,
stenographer in
Hebei province
last month that will not only record
court hearings, but also aid judges in
reviewing criminal cases.
“We’re now able to use AI to help
judges review four types of cases,
namely homicide, theft, telecom
fraud and illegal fundraising,” he said
at a news conference on March 5. As
he spoke, his words appeared on a
screen beside him almost instantly,
demonstrating the speed and accura-
cy of the company’s technology.
Stenographer Li Zhengjie said the
rapid developments seen in AI in
recent years have raised concerns
about the future of his profession.
“I’ve been thinking about this
Cover | HOLIDAY 3
problem since 2010, and I used to
worry my job may one day no longer
exist,” he said, adding that voice-rec-
ognition software like that produced
by iFlytek is the No 1 reason why
demand from journalists for tran-
scription services is drying up.
“When the conversation takes
place in a very quiet environment
and all the speakers are talking loud-
ly and clearly, such apps work better
and more efficiently than us
humans,” he conceded.
Yet he said he feels confident that
such technology will not replace
conference stenographers, at least
not in the short term.
“I’ve never doubted the necessity
for a human stenographer because
only we can recognize who is speak-
ing when, so we can record the cor-
rect order of speakers,” Li said. “Plus,
the environments at forums and
conferences are usually too noisy for
voice translation apps to work effi-
ciently.”
Ma agrees, and added that most
interview recordings she works on
are also conducted in noisy environ-
ments such as on streets or in res-
taurants.
Li said he ultimately believes his
job can coexist with AI systems.
“It’s like radio versus television,”
he explained. “When TV arrived and
became popular in every household,
many people were saying radio was
a dying industry. Yet both are run-
ning well today and simply have
adjusted to cater to varying custom-
er demand.
“Such coexistence will also be
seen between stenography and AI,”
he added.
Contact the writer at
zhangyue@chinadaily.com.cn
‘Exciting
world’ of
quiet but
essential
observers
Zhang
Yue
Reporter’s
Log
S
tenographers are
among the people I
have met most regu-
larly during my seven
years working as a reporter.
On many occasions while
covering seminars and
forums, I have relied on them
for when I can’t split myself
in two to hear speeches being
given at the same time at dif-
ferent venues.
Sometimes I have observed
the look of concentration on
the faces of the stenogra-
phers sitting in front of me or
nearby, their fast-moving fin-
gers a blur as they type on
their shorthand machines.
Based on my experience,
they seldom talk to anyone,
no matter how bustling a
forum or conference might
be. But I approached a stenog-
rapher during a break at one
event because I was curious to
know how fast they can type
and the rate of accuracy.
It was then that I learned
about the structure and prin-
ciple involved in using their
shorthand machines.
A stenotype has only 24
keys. The basic principle is
almost the same as typing
with a standard qwerty key-
board, as the input language
is pinyin. The difference is
that multiple keys can be
used simultaneously to spell
out entire words or phrases,
saving a lot of time.
Stenographers are argua-
bly little noticed, but they
have an impact on many
industries, including those
that affect our daily lives.
My interview with Ma Rui-
juan, a stenographer based in
Handan, Hebei province, took
some time to complete for this
story due to her heavy work-
load. Not only do many of her
freelance assignments come
with tight deadlines, but she
also has two children and is
occupied much of the time
with housework.
Yet the 32-year-old told me
that, spiritually, she gains a
lot from the recordings she is
paid to transcribe. She has
spent hours listening to law-
yers, professors, reporters,
TV hosts and sometimes
celebrities. She told me
repeatedly that “this is some-
thing that truly attracts me to
the job”.
“If I didn’t choose to learn
this skill, probably I would
never have gone to Beijing. I
would not be able to meet
and hear from so many inter-
esting people on so many
exciting topics. I would not
have had the chance to step
onto a China Central TV stu-
dio set or even get to see how
a TV program is produced,”
she said. “All these are mil-
lions of miles away from my
native village.”
She barely thinks about
what effect the developments
in artificial intelligence
might have on her profes-
sion, she said, adding, “I’ll
continue to do this as long as
there is a demand.”
Her words reminded me of
my interview with Li Zheng-
jie, a stenographer in Beijing
with 12 years of experience. I
asked him whether he is con-
cerned about his profession
in the long run.
“I don’t think stenography
will be the only type of job
affected by the development
of AI. Many jobs will be
affected in the process of
transformation,” he said.
“Yet what’s important is
that the job has helped me
open a much more exciting
world, and I have moved my
life to a city such as Beijing.
I’m grateful for the change
and ready to face any poten-
tial changes in my career
with confidence and an open
mind.”
4 HOLIDAY | World
Russia makes UN move after spy plan is rebuffed
Moscow offer of joint investigation
voted down at watchdog meeting
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
— Russia has called for urgent
UN Security Council talks on
the spiraling diplomatic crisis
sparked by the spy poisoning
scandal as a group of expelled
US diplomats left their embassy
in Moscow early on Thursday.
Britain blames Russia for
the March 4 poisoning on
UK soil of former double
agent Sergei Skripal with
what it says was a military-
grade nerve agent developed
Briefly
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Pilots presumed
dead in jet crash
Two pilots were presumed
dead after an F-15K fighter
jet crashed on Thursday in
the country’s rural south,
the Republic of Korea’s air
force said. It wasn’t imme-
diately clear what caused
the crash or whether any of
the pilots attempted to
eject. An airforce spokes-
man said bodies had been
found and their ID was
being checked “but both
pilots are feared dead”.
JAPAN
Headache for Abe
over troop logs
Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe’s government
faced criticism on Thurs-
day, after his defense minis-
ter said the army last year
found activity logs from a
controversial 2004 to 2006
deployment to Iraq, but had
failed to report them to his
predecessor. Defense Minis-
ter Itsunori Onodera said
the Ground Self-Defense
Force, as Japan’s army is
known, had located the logs
in March 2017 but failed to
report them to his prede-
cessor, Tomomi Inada.
PHILIPPINES
Tourist island
ordered closed
President Rodrigo Duterte
has approved the closure of
the tourist island of Bora-
cay for up to six months aft-
er saying the waters off its
famed white-sand beaches
had become a “cesspool”
due to overcrowding and
development. Tourism
undersecretary Frederick
Algre said the shutdown
will start on April 26.
AP—REUTERS—AFP
by the Soviet Union.
More than 150 Russian dip-
lomats were ordered out of the
United States, European
Union members, NATO coun-
tries and other nations in the
wake of the attack, a move that
was met in kind by Russia,
which denies any involvement
in the incident.
Moscow proposed a joint
Russia-Britain investigation
into the poisoning, leading the
Executive Council of the Orga-
Court rejects Lula delay bid
Demonstrators against Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva celebrate outside the National Congress in Brasilia on
Wednesday as the Supreme Court rejected his bid to delay a 12-year prison sentence for corruption. ERALDO PERES / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Talks begin to set up Kim-Moon summit
SEOUL — The Republic of
Korea and the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea on
Thursday started talks to dis-
cuss security and protocol
issues for the inter-Korean
summit later this month, the
ROK’s presidential office said.
The five-member ROK dele-
gation was led by Kim Sang-
gyun, a senior director of the
National Intelligence Service.
Four other Blue House offi-
cials attending the meeting are
Cho Han-ki, protocol secretary
to the president, Shin Yong-
wook, a deputy chief for presi-
dential security service, Kwun
Hyuk-ki, director of the presi-
nization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons watchdog
to hold an extraordinary ses-
sion behind closed doors on
Wednesday.
Both Russian and British
experts and officials attended
the session.
Out of the 41-member
OPCW Executive Council, a
total of 23 countries either
voted in favor of the proposal
or abstained.
“Unfortunately we have not
been able to have two-thirds of
the votes in support of that
decision,” said Alexander
Shulgin, the permanent repre-
dential press center, and Yun
Kun-young, director for the
government situation room.
The DPRK delegation was
led by Kim Chang-son, an offi-
cial from the State Affairs
Commission.
The working-level dialogue
came ahead of the first sum-
mit between ROK President
Moon Jae-in and top DPRK
leader Kim Jong-un scheduled
for April 27 at Peace House, a
Panmunjom building con-
trolled by the ROK.
Kim would become the first
DPRK leader to step onto ROK
soil since the 1950-1953 Kore-
an War ended in armistice.
sentative of the Russian Feder-
ation at the OPCW.
After the vote, the British
delegation tweeted that “the
international community has
again stood up and said ‘No’ to
Russian attempts to confuse
and frustrate this process”.
John Foggo, who is acting as
British permanent representa-
tive to the OPCW, told the ses-
sion that Russia’s call for a
joint inquiry with Britain was
“perverse” and “a diversionary
act”.
Russian foreign intelligence
chief Sergei Naryshkin
warned on Wednesday in a
The meeting was aimed at
ironing out the protocols,
security measures and media
coverage of the summit, the
ROK’s presidential office said.
“We had sincere talks for
four hours straight,” said
Kwun.
He declined to give details,
saying the two sides will meet
again for further discussions
on a date yet to be fixed.
The countries will need to
decide how Kim will arrive at
the venue, including whether
he would cross the military
demarcation line by foot in a
symbolic gesture. The coun-
tries also need to determine
speech in Moscow that both
sides must avoid tensions
escalating to the dangerous
levels of the Cold War.
Accusations of Moscow
engineering the attack were a
“grotesque provocation ...
crudely concocted by the Brit-
ish and American security ser-
vices”, he said.
For Washington, “fighting
the nonexistent so-called Rus-
sian threat has become a real
fixation”, Naryshkin added.
“It has reached such propor-
tions and developed such ludi-
crous characteristics, that it’s
time to talk about the return of
how many times he and Moon
would meet on that day and
also whether parts of their
meeting would be broadcast
on live television.
The two sides have agreed to
hold a working-level dialogue
on Saturday on communica-
tions between Moon and Kim.
The leaders of the countries
agreed to set up a direct hotline
and have their first phone con-
versation before the meeting.
A summit between Kim and
United States President
Donald Trump is also antici-
pated by the end of May.
XINHUA—AP—AFP
Friday, April 6, 2018 CHINA DAILY
the grim times of the Cold War.”
London believes that a mili-
tary-grade nerve substance
named Novichok that was
developed in Soviet times was
used in the poisoning of Sergei
Skripal and his daughter on
March 4 in the southern
English city of Salisbury, an
allegation Moscow denies.
The OPCW experts have
visited the locations and col-
lected environmental sam-
ples. The samples were
brought to the OPCW labora-
tory on March 23.
“The results of the sample
analyses are expected to be
Sumo chief sorry
over women row
TOKYO — The head of
Japan’s sumo association has
apologized after women
attempting to perform CPR
during a medical emergency
on Wednesday were repeated-
ly asked to leave a sumo ring.
At least two women
rushed into the ring in
Maizuru, northwest of Kyo-
to, after a local mayor col-
lapsed while giving a speech.
But as the women attempt-
ed to help the mayor, multiple
announcements were made
over loudspeakers asking
them to leave the ring, city
official Noriko Miwa said.
The rings where sumo is
practiced are seen as sacred
places in the Shinto faith.
Women, who are consid-
ered to be “ritually unclean”,
are barred from stepping
into them.
According to witnesses
cited by local media, sumo
officials threw large quanti-
ties of salt into the ring after
the women had entered, in
an apparent bid to “repurify”
the sacred ground.
In a statement, the sumo
association’s chief, who goes
by the name Hakkaku,
King remembered
People take part in a silent rally on the National Mall to mark the
50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr. in Washington, on Wednesday. REUTERS
received by early next week,”
said the OPCW in a statement.
But in a move hailed as a
vindication by Moscow, the
British defense laboratory at
Porton Down analyzing the
nerve agent revealed on Tues-
day that it could not say
whether the substance came
from Russia.
Early on Thursday morning
the first of around 60 US diplo-
mats ordered out of Russia left
their embassy compound in
Moscow on their way to the
airport.
XINHUA—AFP
described the announce-
ments as “inappropriate”
under the circumstances.
“The announcement was
made by a referee who was
upset, but it was an inappro-
priate act in a situation that
involves one’s life. We deeply
apologize,” Hakkaku said.
Miwa said the mayor had
been hospitalized and was
now in a stable condition.
This is not the first time
there has been a sumo battle
of the sexes. A row erupted in
1990 when then-chief cabi-
net secretary Mayumi Mori-
yama wanted to present the
Prime Minister’s Cup to a
sumo champion in the ring.
She eventually lost that bat-
tle in the face of sumo bosses.
A decade later, Osaka may-
or Fusae Ota was also
banned from presenting the
champion’s trophy in a tour-
nament in the city.
Sumo is still recovering
from a scandal last year
when former grand champi-
on Harumafuji was charged
over an assault on a rival
wrestler while out drinking.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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 CHINA DAILY Friday, April 6, 2018 People | HOLIDAY 5

SCIENTISTS
BRING FIELDS
IN HAINAN
BACK TO LIFE

Professor Jiang Xingyu (right) surveys rice harvest in an experimental field in a township in the city of Wenchang in Hainan province in June 2017. GUO CHENG / XINHUA

By MA ZHIPING in Haikou
The 62-year-old farmer, Lin Min-
ghuan, says he felt he was in an
abyss after seeing typhoon Ram-
masun ruin all his crops in minutes
in Wenchang on the eastern coastal
Hainan island on July 18, 2014.
Rammasun, which means the god
of thunder in Thai, has been
removed from the typhoon name
list due to its destructive strength
that left more than 7 million people
in distress in Vietnam, the Philippi-
nes, China’s Guangdong province
and the Guangxi Zhuang autono-
mous region, with Hainan island
the epicenter of the disaster.
The typhoon was the most serious
in 70 years and killed 25 people, with
six missing in Hainan, according to
local reports.
“We were heartbroken when we
saw nothing would grow on the
once fertile land after the fields were
filled with snow-white salt crystals,’’
says Lin from Fuqian township
where Rammasun made landfall.
He adds that at that time many
people abandoned farming and
went to search for jobs in the cit-
ies, and that the devastating
scenes caused by typhoon Ram-
masun and Seagulls in July and
September 2014 left painful mem-
ories for people in Hainan.
It was then that Jiang Xingyu
came to the town with his team
from Hainan University, to revive
the sea-water filled fields.
The two typhoons -- Rammasun
and Seagulls -- that hit the island
province within two months,
destroyed 2,700 hectares of farm
land.
Speaking about his experiences,
Jiang, the head of the Hainan Key
Laboratory of Biotechnology for
salt-tolerant crops, says: “At first, we
were not welcome. We were sneered
at by the villagers as scholars from
the city.”
But Jiang, who has spent more
than 20 years in Shandong, Henan
and Zhejiang; and abroad in the
United States, Spain and Israel,
doing research on salt- and alkaline-
tolerant seeds was not fazed by the
hostility.
Explaining the issue faced in the
province, he says: “Utilization of
some seashore shallows in Hainan,
with its coastline zigzagging for
1,823 kilometers, is pretty low due to
high salinity.”
And, in total, China has as much
as 33 million hectares of saline and
alkaline land which have not been
developed even as the country
strives to keep its usable farmland
Giving details about the process,
Jiang says: “The sorting of salt-toler-
ant seeds takes time, is tedious and
often we did not get ideal results.
“For instance, we worked with
more than 400 varieties of paddy
seedlings, and have finally harvest-
ed only three kinds of rice seeds,
Jiang, supported by about 10 stu-
dents who are studying for master’s
and doctor’s degrees in the science,
has also introduced his salt-tolerant
seeds and growing technology to
Inner Mongolia, the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region and northeast-
ern provinces.
The ice plants (mesembryanthe-
mum crustallinum in Latin) are also
growing in some areas of southern
Xinjiang while a demonstration
zone of cotton cultivation has been
Professor Jiang Xingyu communicates with local farmers on how New Zealand developed in an area that once did
spinach is growing in Doulin farm in Wenchang city in Hainan province. not even have grass.
WANG JUNFENG / XINHUA And Jiang says that there are vast
land resources like this that can be
developed,.
above 120 million hectares. Jiang’s team, our fields were cov- Jiang is also taking his expertise
“So, if parts of the saline and alka- ered in salt-tolerant ice plants that abroad.
line areas can be turned into arable we sell at around 15 yuan ($ 2.3) Giving details he says: “We are
land, the country’s agriculture will for half a kilogram to hotels and doing a demonstration project to
have much more space, and farmers restaurants (better than the price grow salt-tolerant rice to help reju-
will be benefited.” earned for local vegetables).” venate 2 million hectares land in
Speaking about Jiang’s work, “We have experienced the power Vietnam that has been encroached
Lin says: “I was shocked to see that of science and will be happy if Jiang by sea water, in tandem with a Chi-
after a few months of work by guides us further,” he says. nese fertilizer company.”
Separately, he says that the Hain-
an lab will join Chinese scientists
from the Ministry of Agriculture
and the Chinese Academy of Scien-
ces to work with the World Bank on
water conservation and salt-toler-
ant farming in five Asian and Afri-
can countries including Egypt,
Tunis, Jordan, Lebanon.
Speaking about the plan, World
Bank senior economist Li Qun says:
“We invited officials and experts
from the counties to visit water-sav-
ing fields in Shandong and Jiangsu.
And I was surprised to find that they
have gained much from the visits.”
She says the visiting officials say
they have finally found the way to
handle similar problems in their
countries.
Li also says Chinese scientists can
play a positive role in promoting
salt-tolerant farming techniques
and water-saving agriculture in
countries involved in the Belt and
Road Initiative.
“We will continue to introduce
new farming technologies, develop
new salt-tolerant seed products and
promote them to farmers, in addi-
tion to rice, corn, sugar beet and
lycium chinensis,”Jiang says.
Contact the writer at
mazhiping@chinadaily.com.cn

Startup offers e-commerce platform for therapy of the mind

By ZHANG YUE
Li Zhen is better known as Jian
Lili the founder and CEO of Jiandan
Xinlii (My Therapist, or easy thera-
py), a startup that created an e-com-
merce platform for psychotherapy
services.
“Many people see the platform as
an online counseling service, which
is not what we do,” says Li.
“We are trying to provide a plat-
form where professional psycho-
therapists can gather, receive
professional training and provide
help to those in need. And the inter-
net is the platform of all this.”
The 31-year-old psychotherapist
and entrepreneur walks fast, yet
speaks quietly and slowly, pausing
from time to time.
Ten years ago, Li was the kind of
girl that many people would dream
of becoming.
She got her bachelor’s degree in
English language and literature in
2006, at the age of 19, well before
many of her peers started university.
Speaking about her venture, she
says: “I founded the platform not
just to be an entrepreneur, but also
for myself as a counselor.
“I wanted to conduct psychother-
apy in a more professional way.”
Looking back, Li describes her
experience of becoming an entre-
preneur as a series of experiences
which connected accidentally --
starting with a blank in her mind
about what she wanted to do.
She says that when she was about
to embark on her master’s degree in
the United Kingdom, there were
two areas that interested her -- the
media industry and psychology.
“I was so young and barely had
any idea about what I truly wanted
to do,” she says.
She eventually chose to study psy-
chology, partly because of a family
tradition -- her mother is a psycho-
therapist.
“I was interested in the subject,”
she says.
“It was not like psychology is the
only thing I wanted to study, but it
was something that made me hap-
py.”
In 2006, Li enrolled at the Univer-
sity of London as a postgraduate
student, studying cognitive neuro-
science, as the only student from the
Chinese mainland in her class, at
the age of 19.
She was so young that when her
supervisor first met her, he said to
Li: “Oh, so you are the young talent
from China.”
Li returned to Beijing with a mas-
ter’s degree in 2007 and started
work at a university’s psychological
counseling center where, with two
colleagues, she dealt with student
mental problems and educated
teachers and faculty members about
basic psychology.
That was when she started to
learn about psychotherapy in China.
“The university I worked at was
professional about improving the
students’ mental health. Yet when I
reached out to many privately estab-
lished clinics, I noticed many bad
practices that could bring harm
both to the industry and to those
who came for help.”
One of the things that affected her
most was that many clinics said:
“We promise to resolve your prob-
lem and clear your confusion with
seven sessions of counseling.”
Li said this created a severe misun-
derstanding about psychotherapy.
“Psychotherapy is about building a
long-term relationship between the
client and the therapist, and through
Li Zhen speaks about My Therapist
at a forum in Beijing in April
2016. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
the relationship helping the client
discover a way of thinking to tackle
uncomfortable parts,” she says.
“The idea of resolving a problem
within a fixed number of consulta-
tions is not the point of psychothera-
py,” she says.
“Yet the fact is when people turn
to psychotherapy for help, they usu-
ally have certain problems in mind
that they desperately need to get
resolved.”
The advertisements started her
thinking about a startup, which she
described as “providing the kind of
counseling to people who want it”.
Li then started with writing her
ideas and reflections on Dou-
Psychotherapy is
about building a
long-term relationship
between the client
and the therapist,
and through the
relationship helping
the client discover a
way of thinking to
tackle uncomfortable
parts.”
Li Zhen, a psychotherapist
ban.com, a popular social media
website, and gained followers who
were interested in and agree with
her ideas about psychotherapy.
Li and several of her friends then
rented an office as their counseling
room, and Li started to do individu-
al counseling in her spare time.
It was her experience at Draper
University, an entrepreneurship
program that provides startup boot
camp and courses in business for
entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley in
2014 that encouraged her to estab-
lish her own business.
“I took an eight-week course there
during my winter break that year
simply because I wanted to take a
Li Zhen gives a lecture for an offline
gathering in a bookstore in Beijing in
Sept 2014. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
break after working at the universi-
ty for six years,” she says.
“The courses and people I met
there made me feel more resolute
about the fact that I needed to do
something that genuinely interests
me.”
The course ended with a presen-
tation that required each student to
design a business startup and pitch
to investors.
“The idea of a platform like My
Therapist had been in my mind for
quite some time, and my prepara-
tion for that presentation was basi-
cally to organize and write down all
the steps in my mind and see it as
my real startup.”
Tim Draper, the founder and
president of Draper University, was
in the audience when Li presented
her project, after finalizing her
studies.
Two months later, he became one
of the three investors in Li’s Jian-
danxinli startup, and their coopera-
tion still continues. The program
was also Draper’s second invest-
ment in China.
By 2017, the online platform of My
Therapist had taken on about 500
therapists, where therapists have
opportunities for further study, and
provide paid video counseling to
those in need through the internet.
The platform defines itself as “We
are here to help those searching for
mental health, and to find psycho-
therapists that are appropriate for
them.”
Looking back, Li has a different
perspective on how to define the
platform she started.
“When I first started this I
believed I was working to set up a
better standard in the psychothera-
py services, and we were there
improve the environment in China,”
says Li.
“But it was over the years that I
realized that psychological coun-
seling enjoys a comprehensive
social support system in more
developed countries such as the
United States and the United King-
dom. Yet, in China, the whole sys-
tem has not been fully established
so far. So, I think that for now we
are just working to provide services
to those who are searching for
them, and we must work together
to gradually improve the environ-
ment in the industry.”
Contact the writer at zhang-
yue@chinadaily.com.cn
6 HOLIDAY | Read
Envoy saved thousands from the Nazis
Jewish families given visas needed
to escape Holocaust and find haven
By CECILY LIU in Milan
cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com
A square in Chinatown,
Milan, has become the first
location in Italy to be dedicat-
ed in honor of a Chinese per-
son, Piazzetta Ho Feng Shan
being named for the remarka-
ble achievements of a 1930s
diplomat.
Ho Feng Shan was the Chi-
nese consul general in Vienna
from 1938 to 1940, when the
Nazi authorities would only
allow Jews to leave if they had
a visa to another country.
Consulates were flooded with
applications from Jews desper-
ate to escape the Holocaust, but
while many countries were
unwilling to accept more refu-
gees, Ho saved thousands of
lives by issuing visas to Shang-
hai, allowing Jews safe passage
to China, away from the horrors
of Europe.
Some applications were
even stuffed into his car — but
were treated and granted just
the same as those by more con-
ventional means.
Ho, born in 1901, obtained
his PhD from the University of
Munich in 1932 and spent
nearly 40 years in the diplo-
matic service before retiring to
San Francisco.
He died in 1997 and, in
accordance with his wishes,
was later buried in his beloved
hometown of Yiyang in Hun-
an province.
During his lifetime he rarely
spoke about his work with ref-
ugees. Even in his 700-page
memoir Forty Years of My Dip-
lomatic Life, published in
1990, he gave it just the brief-
est mention.
“Since the Anschluss (when
Nazi Germany took over con-
trol of Austria), the persecution
of Jews by Hitler’s ‘devils’
became increasingly fierce,” he
wrote. “I spared no effort in
using every means to help, thus
saving who knows how many
Jews!”
Ho Manli, daughter of Ho Feng Shan, meets Italian children who visited the Garden of Monte Stella on March 14 to honor humanitarian
heroes. Right: A stone plaque in the Garden of Monte Stella in Milan honors Ho. PHOTOS BY CECILY LIU/CHINA DAILY
Heros contribute to a shared future
By CECILY LIU
Standing on the hills of tran-
quil Monte Stella Park in
Milan and seeing hundreds of
Italian children remembering
humanitarian heroes they had
learned about in class brought
back memories of my child-
hood.
I was attending a ceremony
on March 15 in which Milan’s
government was honoring the
memory of Ho Feng Shan, the
Chinese diplomat who saved
thousands of Jews from the
Holocaust in Nazi-occupied
Europe.
The simple gesture of unveil-
ing a stone plaque recounting
his story put Ho alongside 55
other humanitarian heroes
who have had such stones
unveiled in the park, among
them the late South African
president Nelson Mandela and
the late Pope John XXIII, the
latter credited with saving
Jews during World War II.
It was only after his death
that his daughter Ho Manli, a
journalist, began to investi-
gate her father’s past and the
stories of the survivors he
helped, during which she
scoured archives in Washing-
ton, Vienna and Israel.
Her inquiries began when
she received a telephone call
from the curator of a touring
photographic exhibit on diplo-
matic rescuers of Jews. Almost
immediately she started
uncovering the stories of
many survivors, such as Eric
Goldstaub, who applied to 50
consulates without any suc-
cess before Ho came to his res-
cue, granting 20 visas for his
entire family.
Goldstaub took refuge in
Shanghai from 1939 to 1948
and never forgot Ho’s help.
After the war his story was
recorded in the US Holocaust
Memorial Museum archives.
His cousin Harry Fiedler still
possesses one of the visas Ho
issued, serial number 1193,
issued on July 20, 1938, four
months after the Anschluss.
This was Ho Manli’s first indi-
cation of the volume of visas
her father had helped issue.
In subsequent years many
other journalists, scholars and
writers have followed in Ho
Manli’s footsteps in investigat-
ing the story.
Last year a Canadian-Amer-
ican producer, Rene Balcer,
directed a documentary,
Above the Drowning Sea,
which recorded many first-
person accounts of Jewish ref-
ugees, and the Chinese
residents of Shanghai who
became friends with them
during World War II.
This year Elisa Giunipero,
director of the Confucius Insti-
tute at the Catholic University
of Milan, published a book on
the same topic. She said
remembering Ho is crucial for
Europeans to gain a more
comprehensive understand-
ing of the Holocaust.
I watched as hundreds of
Italian children recited Ho’s
name to each other and
hugged Ho’s daughter, Ho
Manli. They asked her to sign
their notebooks, which con-
tained classroom essays that
told of how Ho issued thou-
sands of visas to Jews between
1938 and 1940 that enabled
them to travel to Shanghai and
escape the Holocaust.
“Manli, Manli, we want to
thank your father, we want to
be your friends,” they said.
Their eyes twinkled, and their
voices were full of warmth and
respect.
Watching their excitement,
I remembered the way I
always looked forward to the
trip every spring that my pri-
mary school organized in
which we visited a local park
and paid our respects to Chi-
nese war heroes who we had
learned about in class.
On this remembrance day,
our teacher would ask us to
Clockwise from above: Ho Feng Shan; A Jewish boy and his Chinese friend at play; A Jewish boy with a Chinese shopkeeper; A Jewish girl and Chinese friends.
PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
“We always think of the
Holocaust as European histo-
ry, but, in fact, it is the history
of humankind. What I find
really interesting is to look at
this history from another per-
spective.”
As Ho’s story has become
better known around the
world he has received numer-
ous commendations. In July
2000 Israel bestowed on him
the title of Righteous Among
visit a stone monument inside
a local park in Chengdu on
which were engraved messa-
ges commemorating Chinese
soldiers who died during the
Long March undertaken by
the Red Army between 1934
and 1936, and those who per-
ished in the War of Resistance
Against Japanese Aggression
(1931-45), and in the many oth-
er battles that paved the way to
create the China of today.
My classmates and I would
sing songs we learned in class
that describe how people
fought bravely in battles, how
they refused to give in to tor-
ture by their enemies, and
how they supported their
comrades in the hope of creat-
ing a better China.
After the songs we would
each place a small bunch of
flowers next to the monument
and pay our respects silently.
Those memories have charac-
terized my understanding of
China’s 20th century history,
the Nations, one of its highest
honors. In 2015 the Holocaust
Museum of Houston honored
Ho with the Lyndon Johnson
Moral Courage Award.
Recently a new stone
plaque in Ho’s name was
unveiled in Monte Stella Park,
Milan. Gabriele Nissim, presi-
dent of the Milan charity Gari-
wo which organized the
memorial, said that in the
modern world, now more
and I still feel deeply inspired
and touched as I reflect on
them.
Fast forward 20 years and I
see Italian children remem-
bering Ho, accepting the Chi-
nese hero into their
understanding of the history
of World War II, and I feel
moved. I felt moved that
through the efforts of scholars
and the government in Milan,
Ho has taken his rightful place
in history.
As our world increasingly
moves toward globalization,
the next generation of young
children around the world
will take on the responsibility
of building a shared commu-
nity for mankind. And per-
haps the fact that Ho is being
remembered in Europe, in the
United States and other coun-
tries is one example of build-
ing a shared memory of
history, to guide us into this
shared community of the
future.
than ever, it was vital to
remember the importance of
human kindness as shown by
Ho.
The European refugee cri-
sis, said Nissim, with hun-
dreds of thousands fleeing
from Asia and Africa, and
thousands dying while trying
to cross the Mediterranean
Sea, shows how important
Ho’s example was.
“Remembering Ho and oth-
Eight years in Shanghai:
The city I owe my life to
By CECILY LIU
In 1939 Sonja Muhlberger
arrived in Shanghai in her
mother’s womb.
She went on to live a happy
childhood in the city’s Jewish
quarter, where she was shel-
tered from the awful abuse
that Jewish people endured
at the hands of Nazi Germa-
ny.
“If we hadn’t fled to Shang-
hai I would not be alive now,”
says Muhlberger, 79. “I love
Shanghai; it is my home.”
Muhlberger was one of
18,000 Jews who fled Europe
between 1938 and 1940 to
seek refuge in Shanghai and
escape persecution by the
Nazis.
Muhlberger, who lived
there until she was 8,
recounted her story to stu-
dents at the Confucius Insti-
tute in one of Milan’s
universities. Recently the uni-
versity organized various
events to remember Ho Feng
Shan, the Chinese diplomat
who issued thousands of vis-
as to Jews in Austria.
Although the visa to
Shanghai that Muhlberger’s
mother obtained was issued
by the Chinese consulate in
the Netherlands, and not by
Ho, she said she respects Ho
as a man and what he did for
so many others who were in a
situation similar to that of
her family.
Muhlberger went to
school, played with other
children and lived what she
called a “sheltered child-
hood” in the Hongkou dis-
trict of Shanghai, together
with many other Jewish refu-
gees.
She recalls the excitement
of seeing snow for the first
time, which allowed her to tru-
Friday, April 6, 2018 CHINA DAILY
er World War II heroes is the
process of remembering the
possibility of humanity to do
kindness and take care of each
other,” Nissim said.
“After World War II we
thought what happened to the
Jews would not happen again,
but that is not true. So this day
we push young people to take
responsibility for what hap-
pened in history.”
The naming of Piazzetta Ho
After all the years
of suppression …
they were finally
free and happy
again.”
Sonja Muhlberge, 79, talking
about her parents
ly understand the meaning of
Snow White from the fairyta-
les her mother had read to her.
Her father took a wash pan to
collect the snow from the roof
of the family’s home and asked
her to hold out her hand so she
could feel it.
Among her valued posses-
sions are the Shanghai visa
issued to her parents and a
photograph of her parents
running around together on
the ship bound for Shanghai
on March 29, 1939.
“After all the years of sup-
Sonja Muhlberger gives a talk at the Confucius Institute of Cat-
tolica University. CECILY LIU/CHINA DAILY
Feng Shan came about
through a two-year process by
the Italian Chinese Entrepre-
neurs Union. Luca Song, chair-
man of the group, said the
naming of the square meant
Ho’s story would continue to
inspire generations of Chinese
living overseas.
“His humanitarian deeds
provide guidance to our con-
duct, so we must remember
him.”
pression in Nazi Germany,
they were finally free and
happy again,” she says.
Two years after the end of
World War II the 8-year-old
Muhlberger moved back to
Germany with her parents,
because her father wanted to
contribute toward the build-
ing of post-war Germany.
But her childhood memo-
ries of living in Shanghai
sparked curiosity in her
about the importance of the
city in the history of the
Holocaust. Over the years
she has conducted research
into the stories of Jewish
refugees in Shanghai and
compiled the information
into articles and the book
Exil Shanghai 1938-1947,
which she co-authored, and
which was published in
2000.
She said she felt a sense of
responsibility to tell the sto-
ries, to do history justice.
“Today I’m so happy to be
here and be one of those who
never gave up telling young
and old people what hap-
pened,” she says.
 CHINA DAILY Friday, April 6, 2018 Image | HOLIDAY 7
The watchman
of earthenware
in Kashgar
N
early every family in the old town of
Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region owns pieces of
local earthenware, whether they be
dishes, cups, bottles or bowls, and those made
by Tursun Zunun are the best-known.
As the sixth generation of earthenware mak-
ers in the old town of Kashgar, Tursun grew up
making pottery with his father and grandfa-
ther. His home is seated in the old town’s south-
eastern highland, facing the Tuman River that
runs through Kashgar. It has become the choice
location for tourists who want to learn about
earthenware. The ideal location of his home has
made it a gathering place for craftsman who
can use the clay that lies conveniently in the
nearby river.
Tursun said there were more than a hundred
1: Tursun checks the earthenware to see if there are any flaws.
2: Tursun digs for clay with his daughter on the bank of Tuman River.
3: Tursun is on his way to deliver the earthenware ordered by tourists.
4: Tursun’s daughter helps him making the earthenware.
5: Tursun decorates the earthenware he made. PHOTOS BY ZHAO GE / XINHUA
earthenware workshops during the heyday of
the craft. However, no more than five work-
shops have survived the assaults of modern
industry, and earthenware is no longer a neces-
sity for Kashgar’s residents.
“Without the government’s protection and
the development of tourism here, earthenware
craftsmanship would probably be lost forever,”
Tursun said.
As an inheritor of intangible cultural heri-
tage, he receives a subsidy of 4,800 yuan ($764)
annually from the government. In addition, the
repair of the old town and the influx of tourists
have injected much vigor into his workshop.
Outside Tursun’s home, a massive Ferris
wheel displays the old town’s modernity and
vitality with the ancient winding Tuman River
as its backdrop.
5
8 HOLIDAY | Trend Friday, April 6, 2018 CHINA DAILY

KEEPING A LEGACY ALIVE

Village houses in Jiangxi province are getting a new lease on life thanks to government funds and the
efforts of the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation
By DENG ZHANGYU
dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn

S
ome years ago, Xu Zaiji
moved out from his old fami-
ly home in Putang village in
East China’s Jiangxi prov-
ince that had been passed down from
generation to generation for about
400 years to an apartment in a near-
by city, part of a trend that left the vil-
lage almost empty. In March, the 66-
year-old moved back to his old house
after its renovation. This time, Xu is
part of a growing trend in which vil-
lagers are renovating their dilapidat-
ed old houses and returning to the
village where they grew up.
“If they are in good condition, the
old houses are cool in summer and
warm in winter. I don’t like living in
my city apartment as it was too hot,”
says Xu. Some of Xu’s relatives plan
to return to live with him in the
newly renovated 300-square-meter
house with open courtyard.
Unlike those in other places who
replace their old houses with mod-
ern buildings, people in Jinxi just
build new ones not far away from
their villages when they decide to
move out of their old homes.
Putang village has more than 60
old traditional houses dating back
to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing
(1644-1911) dynasties. With stone
walls and wooden interior struc-
tures, all of them are either in poor
condition or on the verge of col-
lapse. Renovating them can cost
tens of thousands yuan, which is
expensive for villagers who make
their livings farming rice fields. The
average yearly per capita income An aerial view of the old houses in Zhuqiao village, Jinxi county in East China’s Jiangxi province. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
among the villages is less than
10,000 yuan ($1,580), says Xu.
To renovate Xu’s house and trans-
form it into a house more comforta-
ble for living cost about 700,000
yuan, which he was unable to afford.
In fact, Xu paid about 300, 000 yuan
and the rest was provided by the
local government and Saving Tradi-
tional Houses Initiatives, a program
run by the China Foundation for
Cultural Heritage Conservation.
On March 18, the foundation
launched its second round of reno-
vations in Jinxi county, which has
101 ancient villages with about
11,000 traditional houses built more From left: Zhuqiao village hosts a qipao show to attract tourists. Qipao is one of the traditional Chinese dresses for women; a dragon dance in the village square.
than 400 years ago, the majority of
which are in urgent need of repair.
Over two years, the foundation sands of old houses need to rehabili- based on each house owner’s finan- introduced it to the architecture
will spend 80 million yuan on reno- A village’s history and culture is tating for their original owners. cial status. school of Tsinghua University as a
vating old houses in Jinxi county, “In Jinxi, people were blind to the Also, some companies and even study base for its students.
with 40 million yuan provided by reflected on its buildings. Without the value of their homes. They just left individuals have come to Jinxi to Last year, she donated a sum of
the Ministry of Finance and State their houses and moved to cities. help fix up the old houses. money to help renovate an old
Administration of Cultural Heri-
old houses, there will be nothing left.” But things have changed in recent He Yan, director of the Tsinghua house in Zhuqiao village. Most of
tage, and 40 million yuan by the years, and I have started getting Heritage Institute for Digitalization, the villagers are descendants of sen-
local government. Li Xiaojie, director of the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation orders from local villagers,” says Yu. has been impressed by the big scale ior officials or scholars in the Ming
Li Xiaojie, director of the China Last year, Yu and his team, which of various ancient villages in Jinxi, and Qing dynasties.
Foundation for Cultural Heritage has expanded to 80, including car- where small, mid-sized and big “It’s not a big sum money for me.
Conservation, says that a decade penters, carvers and painters, reno- ancient villages can be found In two weeks, the repairs were com-
ago, many experts lamented that renovation program two years ago in repairing their houses, says Li. vated more than 30 old houses in his depending on their locale. pleted, very quick,” she says.
traditional villages were quickly dis- Songyang in Zhejiang province, hometown. The number of orders he He’s team has spent three years Fu Qingyuan, an expert on
appearing. However, since 2012, the where ancient houses built hun- Passing on traditions used to receive was just four or five. doing research on 68 ancient villa- ancient village protection, also
central government has been lead- dreds of years ago were carefully ren- Yu Xuting started renovating old “People realize that old houses ges in the area, gathering data on donated a sum of money last year.
ing efforts to revitalize them to stop ovated, attracting many young houses in villages in 2008, when he were not useless as they thought the ancient houses, establishing a He says he wanted to set an example
them from disappearing. people to return to the villages. only had a few men working with before. And they do respect the lega- kind of village archive and help so more individuals would protect
“China’s 5,000-year history of However, the number of him. A local from Jinxi county, the cy of their ancestors as long as they making videos for documentary these ancient houses.
agriculture is rooted in its villages. ancient houses in Jinxi is far more 40-year-old used to travel to other have money to repair it,” Yu says. use, all for free. Now, her company is Fu says the essence of Chinese
And a village’s history and culture is than that in Songyang, while the places to restore old houses bought Between 50 to 70 percent of the assisting the locals by providing gui- architecture lies in the wooden
reflected on its buildings. Without government’s financial support is by rich people from rural areas. Now cost of renovating the houses in dance on how to repair their old structures of old village houses.
the old houses, there will be nothing the same. It means that it’s more he has decided to devote the next Jinxi is being covered by the local houses appropriately. “It’s more than simply repairing a
left,” says Li. difficult and needs local house few years into fixing up old houses government and the Saving Tradi- For He, the area is a treasure trove house. It’s about passing on our tra-
Li’s foundation launched its first owners to be more active in in local villages in Jinxi, where thou- tional Houses Initiatives program of Chinese architecture. She has ditions to future generations.”

Concerted effort to preserve genes of traditional culture

By DENG ZHANGYU
With three counties housing hun-
dreds of traditional villages starting
renovation projects in March, offi-
cials and experts say China is now
ushering in a new era for protection
of its traditional villages.
Jinxi county in Jiangxi province
has 101 ancient villages. It began a
project to renovate its old houses on
March 18. In February, another two
counties in Yunnan province
launched similar projects.
“It is the best time for protection of
ancient villages, ” says Li Xiaojie,
former director of the State Adminis-
tration of Cultural Heritage and
director of China Foundation for Cul-
tural Heritage Conservation, which
set up its Saving Traditional Houses
initiative two years ago to help reno-
vate traditional houses in urgent
need of repair. Each of the three
counties mentioned above receives a
sum of 20 million yuan ($31.82 mil-
lion) from the foundation.
In terms of law, money and regu-
lations, China is now more actively
protecting its ancient villages,
which had been in danger of vanish-
ing, says Li.
Since 2012, seven ministries,
including the Finance Ministry and
the Housing and Urban-Rural
Development Ministry, have
worked together to draw up a list of
traditional Chinese villages nation-
wide. Each village on the list has 3
million yuan for its protection. It’s
also not permitted for old houses
with long histories to be demol-
ished.
Many houses in these ancient vil-
lages are on the verge of collapse,
however. Young people move out
from old houses that are often not
convenient for modern lifestyles.
“Although old houses in villages
are private-owned, they make up
China’s cultural gene and they are
the root of Chinese culture,” says Li,
explaining why it is important to
protect the old buildings.
In 2012, the first list of traditional
Chinese villages was released, cover-
ing 646 ancient villages across Chi-
na, each of which had a history of
hundreds of years. Many of them
were built during the Ming (1368-
20 million yuan
from China Foundation for Cultural
Heritage Conservation have been
offered to Jinxi county in Jiangxi
province
in 2012, showing the strong aware-
ness of the public about rural heri-
tage.
“In the past five to six years, since
President Xi Jinping started calling
for the protection of traditional cul-
ture and heritage, more and more
China is now more actively protecting its ancient villages, which had been in people have realized the importance
danger of vanishing. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY of the old houses in villages,” Fu
says.
Since 2012, President Xi Jinping
1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynas- list. According to Fu Qingyuan, an has promoted revitalizing Chinese
ties. expert involving in updating the list, traditional villages as a way to pro-
The list now covers more than they received applications from tect traditional culture on many
3,000 villages after being renewed more than 6,000 villages hoping to occasions. He has also visited lots of
four times. This year, it will be be on the list. ancient villages in rural areas.
updated for the last time, adding Fu says the number of application From the central government to
more villages onto the protection this year, was about 10 times of that local authorities, many actions, reg-
ulations and money have been put
into traditional village protection.
However, there are still many diffi-
culties, it is not as simple as just ren-
ovating the old houses, says Li.
“After a house is renovated, if
there’s no one living there, it will all
have been in vain,” adds Li.
Li suggests that traditional villa-
ges should find more ways to attract
people to live in them.
“We should widen our eyes to find
innovative ways to protect ancient
villages and attract people return-
ing to villages. The most important
is to pass on our culture via these vil-
lages, ” Li says.
After the houses have been reno-
vated, most of the ancient villages
turn to tourism, with the owners
turning houses into homestay
hotels, some of which are designed
into modern style inside.
The villages try to attract tourists
from cities by promoting their good
natural environment, ancient hous-
es and local culture. But other ways
should also be found to revitalize
these villages, so they do not become
too commercialized, experts say.
 CHINA DAILY Friday, April 6, 2018
Customers visit Guangzhou Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical Co Ltd’s 1828 Wanglaoji outlet in a shopping mall in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
Time-honored brands trying new ideas
Traditional firms using retail outlets to
compete in more sophisticated market
By ZHENG YIRAN
zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn
China’s time-honored
brands, known as laozihao,
are adopting fresh operation
modes to catch the eyes of the
country’s increasingly sophis-
ticated consumers.
Recently, traditional Chi-
nese herbal tea producer
Guangzhou Wanglaoji Phar-
maceutical Co Ltd launched
four outlets, called 1828
Wanglaoji, in Guangzhou,
Guangdong province, bring-
ing handmade herbal tea to
physical stores.
Unlike conventional herb-
al tea, which is usually sold in
cans in supermarkets, the
handmade teas are now
being served in physical
stores, where clerks offer cus-
tomized herbal drinks for the
consumers.
“I ordered a classical one.
Customers can choose herbs
to add to their drinks, such
as orange peel, goji berry and
licorice. Compared with
Wanglaoji’s herbal tea sold
in cans, I think the hand-
made one has a heavier taste
of Chinese medicine,” said
Jackie Chen, 25, a increasing number of diversi-
Guangzhou resident.
Three of the new 1828
Wanglaoji outlets are in
shopping malls, and consum-
ers find them a great combi-
nation with adjacent
restaurants.
“I feel great to have a herbal
tea after having a spicy meal
in the Sichuan restaurant
Yili bakes up Western recipe for success
By ZHENG YIRAN
For a good example of how
China’s time-honored brands
are embracing new retail
channels, consider Century
Yili, a bakery that’s long been
famous for its delicious pas-
tries and breads.
Finding itself up against
competition with new brands
selling Western-style cakes,
Yili is now offering its prod-
ucts in brick-and-mortar
cafes, including one in Shu-
angjing, the southeastern
part of Beijing, that wouldn’t
be out of place in, say, Europe
or North America.
The 150-square-meter cafe
encompasses both Western
nearby,” Chen said.
“Because the climate in
Guangdong is usually damp
and hot, we often suffer from
excessive internal heat. In
order to repel internal
humidity and heat, we are
fond of drinking herbal tea,”
he added.
Industry insiders said that
currently, the two leading
Chinese herbal tea makers,
Guangzhou-based Wanglaoji
and Hong Kong-based JDB
Group, take up more than 80
percent of the market share.
Both the density and the
scope of the distribution
channels have reached a satu-
rated level, and all categories
of the products of the time-
honored brands have reached
maturity, making it difficult to
find new market growth
points.
As a result, they said, it is
reasonable for those time-
honored brands to extend
their product categories and
establish their own distribu-
tion channels.
Recent years have wit-
nessed earthshaking changes
in China’s catering market.
Consumers are aware of an
fied food and drinks, and
those time-honored brands
that mainly rely on traditional
operation modes face severe
challenges.
Meanwhile, the market
for instant food and bevera-
ges is continuously growing.
Official statistics show that
by the end of 2017, the mar-
and Chinese style delicacies,
including cakes, light refresh-
ments, fast food and salads.
Its brand elements can be
found everywhere, including
the logo of Beibingyang soda
— a white bear — printed on
wall hangings.
“This is our first chain store
with Western style, and we
plan to launch more such chain
stores in Beijing in the future,”
said Ma Chunying, director of
Beijing Century Yili Grocery Co
Ltd of Beijing Yiqing Group.
The new outlet is one of
more than 120 chain stores
across Beijing, and the growth
rate of its annual sales revenue
is greater than 20 percent.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan
A consumer chooses his own customized herbal drink at an 1828 Wanglaoji outlet.
LI ZHIHAO / FOR CHINA DAILY
Against the backdrop of ‘new
retail’, more and more conven-
tional enterprises are attempting to
open offline experience stores.”
Zhao Yue, analyst at Beijing-based market research firm Analysys
ket volume of instant drinks
had reached more than 50
billion yuan ($7.94 billion)
per year, and the figure is
still rising.
“People’s taste is randomly
changing. In the market
where competition is so
fierce, physical stores with no
distinguishing features are
doomed to be knocked out,”
period (2016-20), Beijing Yiq-
ing Group plans to launch a
total of 300 Yili chain stores.
The new direction for Yili is
already winning raves from
customers.
“In the past, we could only
buy Yili bread in supermar-
kets, and the category was
quite limited. Now, physical
stores offer a variety of selec-
tions, both Chinese and
Western, and the quality and
taste is just the same as I had
in my childhood,” said Zhang
Min, a consumer from Bei-
jing who had just visited the
chain store.
Apart from launching
chain stores, to realize operat-
ing transformation, Century
researcher He Liting of Zero
Power Intelligence Group, a
research institution head-
quartered in Shenzhen, told
China Industrial and Eco-
nomic News.
Huo Liren, deputy manager
of Wanglaoji, said in a media
conference that the company
opened four physical stores
simultaneously to meet con-
Yili also invites consumers to
visit its bread factory, where it
offers lessons in making
breads and cakes.
At the Yili factory in the
Daxing district in Beijing, vis-
itors can learn about the
time-honored brand, which
enjoys a history of 112 years.
Walking down the corridor of
the factory, with old pictures
hanging on the wall, consum-
ers gain a better understand-
ing of the brand’s origin, and
how the company evolved
over time.
“Not only kids, but adults
and the elderly are attracted
to the factory to experience
the charm of the time-hon-
ored brand. Especially during
LI ZHIHAO / FOR CHINA DAILY
sumers’ rising consumption
demands for herbal teas.
“In 2018, we will continue
to explore the market in
Guangdong, and we plan to
enter East China in the
fourth quarter of the year,”
Huo added.
Other time-honored
brands are taking similar
steps. Recently, Chinese
snack and candy maker Hsu
Fu Chi International Ltd
opened its exclusive offline
shop in Dongguan, Guang-
dong province.
The traditional pineapple
cake maker is trying its hand
at what’s called “experiential
consumption”, or consump-
tion driven by the desire for
memorable experiences, by
Visitors take pictures in front of the Beijing Century Yili Grocery
Co Ltd factory. QIAO JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY
festivals, numerous visitors
come to our factory. During
the busy season, we get more
than 1,000 arrivals per day,”
said Li Qi, general manager of
Beijing Yiqing Group.
In addition, Yili is embrac-
Biz Life | HOLIDAY 9
offering hand-made pastries.
The well-decorated shop,
opened in a shopping mall in
Dongguan, offers handmade
pineapple cakes in a variety
of flavors, including original
taste, Japanese-style matcha
and cranberry. It provides
both eat-in and take-away
services, and all the pineap-
ple cakes it sells are beauti-
fully packaged.
Zhao Yue, an analyst at Bei-
jing-based market research
firm Analysys, said “against
the backdrop of ‘new retail’,
more and more conventional
enterprises are attempting to
open offline experience
stores, where they can have
the closest encounter with the
consumers, bringing brand
values to them.”
“However, the difficulties
lie in how to cater to consum-
ers’ personalized and diversi-
fied consumption demands in
the new era. They need to fig-
ure out more crossover mar-
keting strategies, based on the
brands’ own advantages and
conditions,” Zhao said.
At present, there are 1,128
time-honored brands regis-
tered at the Ministry of Com-
merce, with the brands
enjoying an average history
of 160 years. Among them,
more than 60 percent are in
the catering and medicine
sector.
Last year, the MOC, togeth-
er with 15 government author-
ities, jointly issued a guideline
to protect these time-honored
brands, by promoting online
and offline integration, calling
for stronger intellectual prop-
erty protection and offering
additional favorable govern-
mental policies.
ing the ‘new retail’ era by join-
ing hands with many
ecommerce platforms, such
as Tmall.com, JD, miss-
fresh.cn and Womai.com, fur-
ther expanding its
distribution channel.
Digital era
helps old
foodmaker
in delivery,
expansion
By ZHENG YIRAN
For Lu Nan, a 35-year-old
Beijing resident, waiting in
line for some conventional
delicacies has been a holiday
tradition.
He never celebrates Spring
Festival, Lantern Festival or
Mid-Autumn Festival with-
out first picking up some
freshly made seasonal deli-
cacies from Daoxiangcun, a
time-honored brand that’s
been a favorite of Beijing res-
idents since it opened in
1895.
They’ve been such a favor-
ite, in fact, that purchasing
them before a holiday has
meant waiting in line —
sometimes for up to two
hours — at one of the compa-
ny’s physical branches in
Beijing.
“I’ve always come to Daoxi-
angcun since I was a kid,” Lu
said. “I never go to other
shops to buy snacks and
cakes. It has become a habit
for me. I trust the quality of
the brand, and the price is
fairly reasonable.”
Today, however, Lu no
longer has to wait in line.
Daoxiangcun, like other time-
honored brands, has
embraced the digital era,
which means that its signa-
ture yuanxiao (rice dump-
ings) are just a few computer
clicks away.
In 2014, Daoxiangcun
established its flagship
stores on Alibaba’s e-com-
merce platform Tmall.com
and China’s leading online
retailer JD. It also teamed
up with online food-deliv-
ery platforms Baidu Waimai
and JD Daojia, a step
toward exploring the O2O
retail mode of time-honored
bakeries.
Tenfold
increase in 2017 sales reve-
nues of Daoxiangcun com-
modities from JD
compared with 2016
Last year, Daoxiangcun
signed a strategic partnership
with JD, and now, as long as
consumers make their order
before 3 pm, they can get
fresh rice dumplings on the
same day.
Daoxiangcun’s teaming up
with e-commerce platforms
quickly proved to be a suc-
cess. According to statistics
from JD, last year, consum-
ers ordering Daoxiangcun
commodities from its plat-
form expanded by 4.1 times
compared with 2016. The
sales revenues in 2017
surged rapidly, with a ten-
fold increase from 2016.
The digital era has also
expanded the company’s
reach far beyond Beijing.
Going online means Daoxi-
angcun can deliver its prod-
ucts nationwide, including
small cities.
From JD’s data, in 2017,
from first to sixth-tier cities,
subscribers to Daoxiangcun
on its platform grew by five to
10 times, and the growth rates
in the fifth and sixth-tier cities
were the most obvious, reach-
ing eight times and 10 times
respectively.
“The fast-developing e-com-
merce retail industry in China
has injected new growth
points into the time-honored
brand,” said Cheng Wenhua,
deputy general manager of
Beijing Daoxiangcun Food-
stuff Co Ltd.
“Back in 1985, we used old-
fashioned scales to weigh the
pastry, and consumers lined
up outside the store during
peak hour.
“Now, with the online plat-
forms, consumers can enjoy
the delicacies more easily, and
many of the young generation
have become our fans. We see
tremendous room for develop-
ment,” she said.
10 HOLIDAY | Travel Friday, April 6, 2018 CHINA DAILY

ISLAND PARADISE
From the ruins in Sigiriya and the temple in Kandy, to an elephant orphanage,
Xu Lin offers visitors a mixed experience in Sri Lanka

I
t’s almost dusk. And I can just
about see the bats hanging
upside down on trees far away.
Gradually, the trees seem more
white as flocks of egrets arrive to roost.
The bats then fill the sky, signifying a
change of shift. The bats and the egrets
seem to take turns to rest on the trees.
The site is close to Yala National Park,
Sri Lanka. And I am amazed by the beau-
ty of the wildlife even before my safari
tour in the park.
The next day, I wake up at 5:30 am and
carry my breakfast to a vehicle.
Our tour guide has sharp eyes, so it’s
easily to spot wild boar, crocodiles, pea-
cocks, lizards, elephants and deer.
It’s better to carry a pair of binoculars
to see different species of birds.
The park has one of the highest leop-
ard densities in the world.
But seeing one really depends on your
luck, as a large cat can appear and vanish
in an instant.
On the trip, my friend suddenly spots a
black leopard descending from a tree. We
then try to track it down for about half an
hour, but never see it again.
More Chinese tourists are traveling to
Sri Lanka for encounters with animals,
the sea and its cultural heritage.
The prices also make a difference.
For example, it’s much cheaper to do a
wild safari in Sri Lanka than in Africa.
For most travelers, their first stop in Sri
Lanka is Negombo, home to Bandara-
naike International Airport.
At Negombo’s fish markets, fishermen
unload their catch and vendors hawk
seafood.
Also, fish are arranged in an orderly
manner on straw mats along the beach to
be dried.
For those who love elephants, a visit to
the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is a
must. The orphanage, established in 1975
by the Sri Lanka Wildlife department, is
If you go
It’s convenient to charter a vehicle for
the whole trip and the driver will take
you wherever you like. Please bargain
when you hop into a tuk-tuk, or an auto
rickshaw. Wear a mask to avoid dust
during the safari tour. Carry sunblock
and mosquito repellent.
home to injured and maimed elephants
and abandoned baby elephants.
It is noon when we get there. And a
herd of elephants are crossing a road aft-
er taking a shower in the lake, while a
policeman directs traffic.
Besides watching elephants shower
and feeding them, tourists can also buy
notebooks and postcards made from ele-
phant dung.
About two hours’ drive from there is
Sigiriya, or lion rock, one of the finest
examples of ancient urban planning.
It was listed as a UNESCO World Heri-
tage Site in 1982.
The fortress complex, built by King
Kashyapa during the 5th century,
includes the ruins of an ancient palace on
the flat-topped summit of an enormous
rock about 200 meters high.
After the king’s death, the site was used
as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th
century.
There, I am fascinated by the gardens
and ponds and their symmetry.
It’s breathtaking to climb the spiral
stairs attached to sheer walls that lead to
the colorful frescoes.
Then, I come to a small plateau and see
a pair of gigantic lion’s paws carved into
the bedrock.
It was an entrance originally built in
the form of a lion but its upper parts have
been destroyed.
Starting from there, a series of vertigi-
nous staircases on a large rock take me to
the upper palace — the best place to enjoy
a beautiful sunset.
It’s not uncommon to bump into mon-
keys or stray dogs during the climb.
From Sigiriya, we head to the city of
Kandy which is famous for the Sri Dalada
Maligawa temple where the Sacred Tooth
Relic of Lord Buddha is kept.
The temple’s grand festival, Kandy Esa-
la Perahera, is held in July and August
annually.
The Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeni-
ya, in Kandy boasts exotic species of plants
such as orchids, spices and palm trees.
From Kandy to Nuwara Eliya, I take a
train to enjoy views of the tea plantations
and forests on both sides.
My next stop is the old town of Galle
and its fortifications, which in 1988 was
designated as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
A sea port for trade during the 14th
century, Galle has now become a popular
destination for tourists from home and
abroad.
Its architecture is typically European
due to its colonial history, when it was
controlled by Portugal, the Netherlands
and Great Britain.
Galle now has churches, old hotels and
stores that sell jewelry, spices and tea.
And local children practice cricket on
the playgrounds.
It’s pleasant to walk along the well-pre-
served Galle Fort and enjoy the breeze
from the Indian Ocean.
Finally, on a train from Galle to Colom-
bo, the country’s commercial capital, I
am excited to see the Indian Ocean just
beyond the windows.
That train journey also marks the end
of my satisfying trip to Sri Lanka. From top: At Negombo’s fish markets,fish are arranged in an orderly manner on straw mats
along the beach to be dried; a monkey at Sigiriya, or lion rock, a fortress complex built by
Contact the writer at King Kashyapa during the 5th century; elephants play with each other at the Pinnawela Ele-
xulin@chinadaily.com.cn phant Orphanage.

From left: Meera Mosque in Galle Fort; a railway station in Sri Lanka; local residents at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya; Damro Tea Plantation. PHOTOS BY XU LIN / CHINA DAILY

Tourists pick their own grapes at Chile wine harvest fest

VALLE DE COLCHAGUA, Chile — Doz-
ens of tourists armed with sharp scissors
and donning dusty gloves and aprons
walk through rows of green vines, hand-
picking dark purple grapes that will be
turned into Chilean wines enjoyed
around the world.
It’s hard work under a scorching sun
and the professional pickers watching
them from a distance grin knowingly. But
the tourists have paid for the hands-on
experience at Chile’s harvest, which
draws thousands of visitors each year, so
they carefully cut the precious grapes in
bunches and deposit them into wooden
crates at the Viu Manent winery.
“The truth is that you always drink the
wine, but you don’t really know the proc-
ess behind it,” said Gina Cuesta, a visitor
from Colombia.
Chile is the world’s No 9 wine producer,
with an output of about 800 million liters
last year. It was the world’s fourth-largest
exporter by volume, and the leader
among “New World” producers.
The South American country has been
making wine since the mid-1500s, when
Spanish settlers brought the first vines,
and has become known for producing
reliable and affordable wines.
Visitors pay up to $90 for the tour of
Viu Manent, which includes riding on
horse-drawn carriages or bikes in the pas-
tures of the Colchagua Valley, one of
Chile’s best-known wine regions.
And they get the grape-picking experi-
ence.
While the tourists don’t get to keep the
grapes, they top off their work with grilled
steak, fermented grape juice and a glass of
malbec at the vineyard’s visitor center,
which this year was named best in the
800 million
liters of wine produced by Chile in
2017, which makes the country the
world’s No 9 wine producer
world by the British magazine Drinks
International. Founded in 1935, Viu
Manent was also awarded Winery of the
Year in 2017 by the Wines of Chile associa-
tion.
“There are some vineyards that offer
similar initiatives, but none is as com-
plete and focused on the integral experi-
ence of wine producing and enology as
ours,” said Freddy Grez, who is in charge
of Viu Manent’s tourist activities.
Each year, about 37,000 visitors — most
of them from Brazil and the United States
— visit the winery about 90 miles (140
kilometers) south of the Chilean capital.
The two-hour drive from Santiago along
the country’s “Wine Trail” gives tourists
the chance to wine-hop at guesthouses
and restaurants that offer carmenere,
cabernet sauvignon and other varieties
for which Chile is known.
Chile’s natural barriers have a lot to do
with the successful growth of its wine
industry. It is shielded by the Pacific Ocean
on the west, the Andes mountains on the
east, Antarctica to the south and the
world’s driest desert to the north. This has
helped protect Chile from plagues, allow-
ing winemakers to grow vines ungrafted,
using ancient cultivation techniques.
In recent years, Chilean winemakers have
also been experimenting with other temper-
atures and terrains. In the quest for more
interesting tastes and characters, they’ve
grown grapes in extreme places such as the
icy south and the Atacama desert.
Back at Viu Manent, the team of tour-
ists has gathered about 1,100 pounds (500
kilograms) of grapes. It seems like a lot
but Grez says that depending on the har-
vest, professional workers can pick two to
four times as much — anywhere from
2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) to 4,400
pounds (2,000 kilograms) a day.
“I thought it was interesting because I
put myself in the shoes of the people who
do this work,” lawyer Ana Maria Farren
said. “We were here for half an hour and
ended up tired. The (workers) are here for
hours at a time. This experience allowed
me to understand all the heavy work that
is behind a bottle of wine.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
 CHINA DAILY Friday, April 6, 2018
SPORTS INDUSTRY
Team China athletes don the Anta Sports outfits that proved so popular with the public during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Anta is one of a number of sportswear companies based in Jinjiang, Fuji-
an province, that have mushroomed from humble beginnings to become major global brands. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY
Sneaker city is always a step ahead
Sportswear hub Jinjiang ups its
game in search of global gains
By XINHUA
When the Chinese delega-
tion walked into the stadium
for the opening ceremony of
the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter
Olympics, their striking white
outfits grabbed the attention
of fans and immediately had
social media abuzz.
The outfit was produced by
Anta Sports, China’s leading
sportswear brand with a
market value ranked third
globally, behind Nike and
Adidas.
Come the 2022 Games in
Beijing, China’s finest will be
sporting Anta gear again.
“We reached a partnership
agreement with the Chinese
Olympic Committee (COC) for
cooperation in the fourth
Olympic cycle starting in
2009,” said Ding Shizhong,
CEO of ANTA Sports.
Last year, Anta sold 60 mil-
lion pairs of shoes, which, if
lined up end to end, would
span 1.5 times the flight dis-
tance between Beijing and Los
Angeles.
Anta is based in Jinjiang,
Fujian province, the world’s
largest production base for
sneakers. The southeastern city
produces 40 percent of China’s
sports shoes and 20 percent of
the world’s, with many other
big brands like Xtep and 361
Degrees also made there.
Survival of the fittest
Once an important port
city on the Maritime Silk
Road, Jinjiang has a tradition
of cultural exchange and
overseas trading. Since Chi-
na’s opening-up in the 1980s,
Jinjiang entrepreneurs have
capitalized on the city’s geo-
graphical advantage to sell
imported goods to other parts
of China. Sneakers proved
OLYMPICS
2022 Games venues on schedule and ‘sustainable’
By XINHUA
The preparations for the
Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter
Games are progressing well on
all fronts, with construction
on schedule and venues being
built with sustainability in
mind.
Beijing 2022 will use 26
competition and non-compe-
tition venues in three zones —
Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangji-
akou.
International Olympic
Committee president Thomas
Bach believes that Beijing
2022 will set a new standard
for sustainability.
“Beijing 2022 can set a new
benchmark for a sustainable
Olympic Games, on one hand
benefiting from the legacy of
Beijing 2008, and on the other
particularly popular.
Eratat is recognized as Jinji-
ang’s first shoe company and
claims to have produced the
city’s first pair of sneakers in
1983.
In 1987, 16-year-old Ding
took sneakers produced in Jin-
jiang to Beijing. Four years lat-
er, he started up the Anta
company, even though, he
recalls, “the concept of ‘sports
footwear still did not exist”.
Soon, though, there was an
“explosion” in demand and,
consequently, sneaker facto-
ries.
“There were wholesale mar-
kets all over China,” Ding said.
The industry reached its
peak around 2008 when Bei-
jing hosted the Olympics, with
Jinjiang home to over 3,000
factories, including 21 listed
enterprises.
“After that, however, the
problem of excessive supply
was aggravated, as so many
factories were turning out
similar products,” Ding said.
In the cut-throat battle for
profits that ensued, many of
the brands disappeared, leav-
ing Anta, Xtep and 361
Degrees as the main survivors.
Secret to success
Ding says his secret to suc-
cess is innovation. “In 2005
Anta set up China’s first high-
tech sports-science lab,” he
said.
Expenditure in research
and development grew from
one percent at the beginning
to its current level of 5.8 per-
cent of annual revenue. Anta
has also set up design centers
in the United States, Japan
and South Korea.
“In China, the middle class
is rising,” Ding said, explaining
that this is how Anta managed
to acquire several internation-
developing a new winter
sports destination in a sustain-
able way,” Bach told Xinhua at
February’s Pyeongchang Win-
ter Games.
With less than two years
before the test events, the con-
struction of major competi-
tion venues has to be finished
before the end of 2019. Some
work cannot be carried out in
winter, especially in the moun-
tainous Yanqing Zone, making
hitting that deadline more dif-
ficult.
The Beijing Zone will be
home to curling, ice hockey,
skating and the newly estab-
lished Big Air across 13 venues,
including eight from the Bei-
jing 2008 Summer Games,
four new builds and one tem-
porary.
The Yanqing Zone, located
Jinjiang-based companies’ focus on technological innovation is helping them take on the world in sneaker
production and sales. XINHUA
Anta will not only
provide high-quali-
ty service to Bei-
jing 2022 but will
also work to help
promote the devel-
opment of winter
sports in China.”
Zheng Jie, executive director of
Anta Sports
74 kilometers northwest of
downtown Beijing, and with a
total of five venues, will host
three sports (alpine skiing,
bobsleigh/skeleton and luge).
The city of Zhangjiakou,
about 180 km from Beijing in
Hebei province, will have eight
venues in total and will host
skiing and biathlon.
The transport infrastruc-
ture is also taking shape.
Construction has begun on
the Beijing-Zhangjiakou
Intercity Railway, which will
reduce train-travel time
between the two cities by
around 40 minutes.
Of the venues from the 2008
Games to be used, the Bird’s
Nest Stadium will stage the
opening and closing ceremo-
nies, while the National
Aquatics Center, aka the Water
al brands, including Fila,
Descente and Sprandi. These
acquisitions have brought
more high-end customers and
introduced Anta to a global
market.
As of June last year, Anta had
opened 67 more Fila outlets to
bring the total number to 869,
as well as opening 15 more
Descente stores in China.
Xtep, meanwhile, has
cashed in on the marathon
craze which is sweeping the
country, and now sponsors
dozens of races nationwide.
Celebrity endorsement is
another major marketing
strategy, with Anta and 361
Degrees signing NBA stars
such as Kevin Garnett and
Cube, will host curling.
Close by in the Olympic For-
est Park, the National Speed
Skating Oval, dubbed the Ice
Ribbon, is under construction
and is expected to be complet-
ed by the end of 2019.
Twenty-two separate light
strands (or ribbons) flow up
and around the oval in hom-
age to the sport it will host,
creating a stunning spectacle
by night.
Other venues will also fea-
ture high-tech enhancements.
The National Aquatics Center
will be repurposed from Water
Cube to Ice Cube thanks to the
installation of a transferable
rink, while the National Skele-
ton and Luge Center will fea-
ture a special roof to protect
the track from the rays of the
sun in order to save energy.
Klay Thompson to promote
their brands internationally.
Jinjiang’s sneaker giants are
also targeting domestic tie-ins.
As well as the COC deal, Anta
last year signed an eight-year
contract to become an official
sponsor of the Beijing 2022
Winter Olympics and Para-
lympics.
“Anta will not only provide
high-quality service to Beijing
2022 but will also work to help
promote the development of
winter sports in China,” said
Zheng Jie, executive director
of Anta Sports.
Both Zheng and Ding joined
the 2018 Pyeongchang Olym-
pic Winter Games torch relay
at the invitation of Thomas
Beijing’s National Aquatics Center, a venue for the 2008 Summer
Olympics, will be transformed from ‘Water Cube’ to ‘Ice Cube’ in
order to host the curling competitions during the 2022 Winter
Games. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Sports | HOLIDAY 11
Bach, president of the Interna-
tional Olympic Committee.
‘City of sports’
Jinjiang’s sportswear brands
are also aiming to expand into
other fields. On March 14, 361
Degrees unveiled a plan to
enter the gaming sector by
working with top Chinese
e-sports club QG.
Homegrown brands are a
major factor in the rapid
growth of China’s sports
industry, which had a total
output of 1.9 trillion yuan
($294 billion) in 2016, accord-
ing to recent government fig-
ures. By 2025, that figure is
expected to reach 5 trillion
yuan ($774 billion).
Jinjiang now boasts over
3,000 sportswear companies.
In 2016, the total value of its
sports industry had reached
147.2 billion yuan ($23.3 bil-
lion), contributing to 34 per-
cent of the city’s overall
industrial value.
Recently, the Jinjiang gov-
ernment mapped out a plan to
accelerate the industry’s
expansion through invest-
ment, technological innova-
tion and public service. It says
that by 2020, Jinjiang’s sports
industry will be worth 180 bil-
lion yuan ($28 billion) while
consumption in the city is
expected to hit 3 billion yuan as
more than 40 percent of its res-
idents take up regular exercise.
Jinjiang will host Gymna-
siade 2020 and four consecu-
tive biennial FISU University
World Cups in soccer from
2019 to 2025, boosting the
city’s credentials as a “city of
sports” as opposed to just a
“city of sportswear”.
At a party last year marking
the 10th anniversary of Anta’s
public listing, Ding sang a
song that is popular among
Fujian dialect speakers called
Dedicate Yourself And You Will
Win.
It could well be the slogan
for the city of Jinjiang.
MARTIAL ARTS
MMA
fighting
for piece
of the
Thai pie
BANGKOK — As some-
one who has practiced Thai
boxing (Muay Thai) for 30
years, Chatri Sityodtong
knows very well the chal-
lenges he faces as he tries to
bring his version of mixed
martial arts (MMA) to the
Southeast Asian nation.
Sityodtong, who left a
Wall Street career to start
the ONE Championship in
2011, said the first major
problem was a Thai mis-
conception about the series
born of televised western
versions of cage fighting.
“Thais have a misconcep-
tion, they think ONE Cham-
pionship is about MMA,”
Sityodtong, who has Thai
and Japanese parentage,
told Reuters in an inter-
view.
“MMA is what our west-
ern counterparts use to pro-
mote violence. Real martial
arts is about respect, humil-
ity and discipline.”
Given the long history of
martial arts in Thailand,
the country should be a
fruitful recruiting ground
for fighters and audiences
alike.
But getting Muay Thai
boxers to take up MMA has
been a challenge, with the
fighters reluctant to learn
new rules and techniques,
especially around ground
fighting, which does not
feature in the local codes.
Muay Thai fighter Thaw-
eechai Chatarasuk under-
went some MMA training
before deciding to stick to
what he knew.
“Muay Thai is better, you
can learn more from it,” he
said.
The chairman of the Kru
Muay Thai Association,
Chinawut Sirisompan, says
MMA has good promotion
and media but Thais prefer
stand-up striking tech-
niques and are “bored” by
ground fighting.
ONE Championship CEO
Sityodtong is no stranger to
Muay Thai, having trained
with legendary Muay Thai
coach, the late Master Yod-
tong Senanan, who gave
him the ringname Chatri.
His familiarity with its
old traditions and rituals
that pay homage to masters
and respect for opponents,
is helping the ONE Cham-
pionship connect with
Muay Thai fans and practi-
tioners.
The ONE Championship
is seeing more Muay Thai
athletes joining its kickbox-
ing and MMA league, Chat-
ri said.
Muay Thai-to-MMA con-
vert, Dejdamrong Sor
Amnuaysirichoke, says it
helps if Muay Thai fighters
understand MMA rules,
especially around ground
fighting.
“Muay Thai gives us an
advantage in MMA,” he
said. “Thais should keep an
open mind and give MMA a
chance.”
Female ONE Champion-
ship athlete Rika Ishige
said that if Thais took time
to understand the rules
they would see it was not
barbaric.
“The thing that will bring
(Muay Thai) further on in
the future is MMA,” she
said.
Sityodtong’s vision is to
build a venue that will
bring Asia together
through martial arts and
believes the rags-to-riches
stories of its athletes can
help.
“Ninety five percent of
our athletes come from
incredible backgrounds of
tragedy and poverty,” he
said.
“Their spirit to overcome
adversity represents
authentic martial arts.”
REUTERS
12 Friday, April 6, 2018

SPORTS CHINA DAILY » CHINADAILY.COM.CN/SPORTS

SOCCER

Klopp keeps cautious

despite Reds’ romp
Liverpool boss says his side must
‘work like hell’ to finish off City
LIVERPOOL — Liverpool
manager Jurgen Klopp
warned his side will still have
to “work like hell” to reach the
Champions League semifi-
nals despite taking a com-
manding 3-0 quarterfinal
first-leg lead over runaway
Premier League leader Man-
chester City.
City leads Liverpool by 18
points in the Premier League,
but its only league defeat this
season came in a 4-3 thriller at
Anfield in January, and it suf-
fered an even worse fate on
Wednesday to leave its hopes
of winning the European Cup
for a first time hanging by a
thread.
Just as in the January meet-
ing between the sides, the pro-
lific Mohamed Salah, Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain and
Sadio Mane were on target for
the host.
Tianjin players celebrate after beating Shanghai 3-2 in Game 7 of the 2018 China Volleyball League finals to earn their club its 11th CVL “We beat the best team in
crown on Tuesday at Luwan Gymnasium in Shanghai. XINHUA the world so that’s a really
good performance,” said
Klopp.
VOLLEYBALL “It was good tonight, but I
am not interested in being
Jurgen Klopp celebrates.
there again like hell.”
Klopp’s caution is born out
of the fact that City thrashed
10-man Liverpool 5-0 in their
only previous meeting at Eti-
had Stadium this season.
“We conceded there already
five. How can I say it is not pos-
sible?”
City boss Pep Guardiola
insisted he still believes
despite his side’s most com-
prehensive defeat of the cam-
paign.
“I think in this room there is
nobody except the guy talking
to you who believes we are
Liverpool’s night was slight-
ly marred when Salah limped
off with an injury early in the
second half.
“After the game he said: ‘I
will be good, I will be fine.’ But
now we have to wait for the
real diagnosis,” added Klopp
on the Egyptian star’s fitness.
City could already be
crowned English champion by
the time the sides meet again
for the second leg in six days’
time should it beat Jose Mour-
inho’s Manchester United in
Saturday’s derby.
Guardiola’s side has been in
stunning form for the large
majority of the season, but he
lamented a poor 20-minute
period in the first half that has
likely cost them a shot at Euro-
pean glory.
“The result is tough but I
don’t have (the) feeling we
played to concede that result,”
said Guardiola. “But in this
competition (what happens)
in the boxes makes all the dif-
ference and they were so good
in those situations.”
City was well aware of the
cauldron it was facing from
the off as its team bus was bat-
tered by bottles and cans on its
arrival at Anfield.
Klopp was quick to apolo-

CVL spikes in popularity good. In this competition it is

about going to the next round,
and we are not in the next
round. Let’s talk about it after
the next game.
going to go through,” said
Guardiola.
“Tomorrow we are going to
try to convince ourselves that
in six days it is 90 minutes
gize as was the club in a
strongly worded statement
condemning the actions of its
own supporters.

“We will really have to work more and we are going to try.” AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rejuvenated women’s league hits new heights, Shi Futian reports

A fter years of living in

the shadow of China’s
all-conquering wom-
en’s national team,
the country’s professional
volleyball league is finally
enjoying the limelight.
On Tuesday, the curtain
closed on the upgraded 2017-
2018 China Volleyball League
season, with the women’s
final between Tianjin and
Shanghai racking up viewing
figures that the dramatic
action deserved.
Tens of millions of fans
watched online as Tianjin
claimed its 11th league title by
clinching the deciding match
of the seven-game finals to
claim the 3 million yuan
($470,000) first prize in front
of around 3,500 spectators at
Luwan Gymnasium in
Shanghai.
Tianjin’s 18-year-old Li
Yingying capped her stun-
ning season with another
scoring blitz in the final, rack-
ing up 43 points to easily sur-
pass the 21 points of South
Korean Shanghai rival Kim
Yeon-Koung, 30.
Li totaled 206 points over
the seven games and 804
throughout the season, mak-
ing her the youngest player in
CVL history to break the 800-
point mark.
“This season just made me
a more mature player with a
better mentality,” said Li.
Tianjin coach Chen You-
quan hailed his team’s per-
formance, saying: “Both
teams were strong and this
was an amazing game.
“Although Shanghai had a
great performance in terms
of attack and defense, we
handled the pressure and dis-
played our skills.”
It was a fitting end to a sea-
son in which the CVL and its
business operation partner
iRENA, has launched head-
first into the future by rolling
out an ambitious 70 million
yuan ($11 million) reform
plan designed to improve its
product on every level.
“Our goal is to create the
best volleyball league in the
world and start a new era for
the CVL,” said Eric Gao, CEO
of iRENA.
“We have seen a very suc-
cessful season. We have made
a lot of effort going into mar-
keting and promoting the
CVL and we are glad there
have been a lot of improve-
ments in various areas.”
Gao said cultivating more
superstars such as Team Chi-
na captain Zhu Ting will be
key to achieving that goal.
China’s top spiker Zhu, the
world’s most expensive play-
ers who began her career in
the CVL and is now playing in
the Turkish league, has
helped drawn global atten-
tion to the sport.
“China’s women’s volley-
ball team has enjoyed
remarkable achievements on
the international stage. For
the league, we must improve
the competitive level and
popularize the sport to as
many people as possible.
“It’s also important that a
top league has the ability to
attract superstars as well as
create future homegrown
superstars.”
Shanghai’s South Korean
star Kim, the MVP at the 2012
London Olympics, joined
Shanghai this season and
more international stars are
expected to follow her to Chi-
na in the near future.
All Star action
In a bid to further lift the
league’s profile, the CVL’s All
Star extravaganza will take
place over the course of two
days, April 13 and 14, at
Shenzhen Bao’an Stadium in
Shenzhen, Guangdong prov-
ince.
Passions have obviously
been stirred during the sea-
son, with fans casting 28 mil-
lion votes online by April 1 to
Our goal is to cre-
ate the best volley-
ball league in the
world and start a
new era for the
China Volleyball
League.”
Eric Gao, chief executive of
iRENA, the CVL’s business
operation partner
decide the 56 most popular
players.
Friday’s action will focus on
exhibitions of skill, with the
men’s and women’s All Star
games taking place on Satur-
day. Fans will also have a
chance to interact with their
idols, with several activities,
including a fans’ meeting and
a stars’ red carpet show,
planned.
The CVL has upped its
game on the media front, too.
Unlike many leagues, it has
steered clear of exclusive
copyright and instead oper-
ates a policy of sharing con-
tent in order to gain the
maximum exposure.
The league boasts over a
dozen online media partners,
such as Ali Sports and Sina
Sports, with a record 500 mil-
lion people watching CVL
games on different platforms
throughout the 2017-2018
season.
Social media is another
vitally important tool for the
league, with increased activi-
ty on the likes of Weibo and
WeChat attracting over a bil-
lion hits this season.
The CVL has broadened its
spectrum of partners and
sponsors to include sectors
beyond the sphere of sports,
including the food industry,
internet finance and the
automobile industry. This
season saw the launch of
“theme days”, featuring spe-
cial events offered by title
sponsors.
The CVL also spent big on
upgrading facilities to pro-
vide spectators with a better
experience. For example, Bei-
jing’s Guangcai Gymnasium
installed new equipment,
including an advanced LED
screen and sound meters, and
now provides a “theater-
style” experience thanks to a
major renovation of the seat-
ing arrangement and the con-
struction of tunnels for the
players.
Contact the writer at shifuti-
an@chinadaily.com.cn